Uvre only listed in June and already the company is kicking off its maiden drilling program at the East Canyon uranium-vanadium Project in Utah, USA.
And the drilling couldn’t have kicked off at a more opportune time for uranium sentiment in the USA, with a $US4.4bn plan from the Biden Administration to purchase domestic enriched uranium and the $369 billion Inflation Reduction Act which included major tax incentives to keep operating nuclear power plants running.
“We’re in a first world jurisdiction, where the government has just come out with huge news that they’re going to support domestic uranium production and are looking for other supplies of critical minerals,” Uvre’s (ASX:UVA) MD Pete Woods said.
Uranium and vanadium exposure
The company doesn’t just have exposure to uranium, there’s vanadium too and Woods said he is confident that Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFB) are going to be in growing demand.
“With wind and solar power, you need to be able to store that energy off the grid at times and be able to draw that back down efficiently. The only way you can do that is with big industrial scale batteries,” he said.
“Lithium-ion batteries are expensive, and they are subject to catching alight, so we think VRFBs are a potential solution for that.
“I don’t think the market has really caught on to that yet as the focus has been on lithium-ion batteries, but we think that VRFB’s and associated technologies are going to be a growing trend in the future.
“So Uvre’s not only exploring for uranium which plays into the nuclear side of things, we are also hunting vanadium which may allow us to play into that battery space, as well.”
Testing historic workings at East Canyon
The goal at East Canyon is to test extensions of mineralisation which was observed and sampled within and around historical workings which returned uranium and vanadium grades of up to 1.27% U3O8 and 9.21% V2O5
And there’s plenty of historic workings in the area – with the company’s claims covering 4,620 acres of the Uravan Mineral Belt which has been an important source of uranium and vanadium in the US for more than 100 years.
“We’re right in the heart of the US and if we do come up with a resource over time, we are in close proximity to established mining operations and excellent infrastructure. The White Mesa uranium and vanadium mill is just down the road which has historically accepted ore from 3rd parties,” Woods said.
Diamond drilling of up to 50 holes is now underway at the None Such and Bonanza areas.
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