Anfield Energy Inc. (TSX-V:AEC, OTCQB:ANLDF) told investors it had a “transformational” 2022 as the company continues to further its goal of becoming a near-term US-based uranium and vanadium producer amid positive market developments.
The firm said is continuing its hunt for more uranium and vanadium projects to “buttress both its primary hub-and-spoke production pipeline and secondary resource in order to create a long-term production portfolio underpinned by the Shootaring Canyon mill”.
Anfield’s conventional uranium assets also include the Velvet-Wood project, the Frank M Uranium project, the West Slope project and the Findlay Tank breccia pipe project, and it has now acquired the Artillery Peak claims in Arizona as well as the Marysvale and Calf Mesa projects in Utah.
In 2023, the company said, it would begin work on both the latter in a bid to generate a NI 43-101 resource to serve as a potential secondary uranium resource for its production pipeline, alongside the Frank M mine in Utah and the Findlay Tank breccia pipe project in Arizona.
Another potential catalyst in 2023 will be an updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for Velvet Wood with a vanadium resource to be included.
A 2016 PEA did not include any vanadium resource despite historical production at the mine of around 4 million pounds of uranium and 5 million pounds of vanadium.
In addition, Anfield has engaged BRS Inc to complete both an initial PEA for the West Slope project – related to the resource report issued in 2022 – and a PEA for the Slick Rock project, it added.
A Precision Systems Engineering (PSE) report for the company’s Shootaring Canyon mill in Utah is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2023, which should mean Anfield will have full accounting as to the cost and timing related to the reactivation of the asset, it added.
In 2022, Anfield also negotiated and removed debt held by Uranium Energy Corporation (UEC), raised over $22 million in equity, and appointed Kenneth Mushinski as chairman.
“Overall, given our 2022 accomplishments and continued furtherance of our two-fold production strategy – underpinned by the Shootaring Canyon mill – we expect to see the valuation gap between ourselves and other producing and near-producing peers narrow significantly in 2023,” said CEO Corey Dias in the wide-ranging statement.
“The macro view of the nuclear and uranium markets is increasingly positive. With a shift away from Russia, the value of European and North American uranium conversion and enrichment has increased significantly as these continents look to not only shift away from Russian-sourced fossil fuels but to also embrace nuclear power,” he added.
On uranium, he added: “Overall, it is a story of supply and demand; demand is growing, while supply is shrinking.”
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