Peninsula Energy Limited, through its wholly owned subsidiary Strata Energy Inc., has announced a significant advance at its flagship Lance uranium project in Wyoming, USA.
With regulatory hurdles cleared, the company has flicked the switch on acidification at header house 14, a gateway to its MU-4 deposit. The move follows formal injection approval from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Uranium Recovery Program.
The acidification process, which is expected to last about three months, marks a critical step towards the initial production of uranium. Upon reaching the target acidity, measured as pH, uranium-rich fluids will be redirected to the Lance central processing plant (CPP) for processing into yellowcake.
The company says construction of associated header houses 16 and 15 for MU-4 is progressing on schedule. Acidification for header house 16 is also planned to begin in the coming weeks, while header house 15 is expected to follow in the March quarter.
MU-4 is strategically vital, comprising six header houses which will account for around 60 per cent of the company's forecast uranium production for 2026 and 2027, as described in the company’s production reset design announced in August.
The new plan emphasises low-pH – or more acidic - in-situ recovery operations for sustainable production. Building on experience from MU-3, where headers 11 and 12 were the first to be swung over to lower-pH acid leaching, Peninsula has succeeded in optimising its well-field designs for MU-4.
Each header house now features about 30 production wells, with 20-metre spacings between production and injection wells. The aim is to achieve faster acidification at a targeted pH of two.
The revised configuration is projected to recover about 80 per cent of recoverable uranium within 13-14 months per header house. Pump tests in MU-4 have already indicated significantly higher flow rates than those in MU-3 and exceed the earlier conservative assumptions in the reset plan.
Peninsula Energy managing director and chief executive officer George Bauk said: “The commencement of acidification within Mine Unit 4 is a significant milestone to conclude the year. Mine Unit 4 incorporates the optimised well-field design within a mining area that is demonstrating strong flow rates, which we expect to be representative of the broader Kendrick mining area.
Back at the central processing plant, commissioning is gaining momentum, with operators fine-tuning the leaching, precipitation, filtration and drying circuits. At the same time, the company is integrating a water purification system to remove excess sodium from the process stream, delivering a cleaner, higher-quality dried yellowcake product.
Additionally, corrosion-affected pipes from phase one are being replaced with a fibre-reinforced plastic, which has proven effective at coping with acidic conditions. Work on the piping is slated for completion next month, ahead of production flows from Header House 14.
Peninsula remains on track to achieve its 2026 uranium production guidance of 0.4 to 0.5 million pounds, which is fully consistent with the company’s timetable for its ongoing ramp-up at the Lance project.
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By Doug Bright
