U.S. Mine Restart Plans With Advancement Of Tony M Mine

U.S. Mine Restart Plans With Advancement Of Tony M Mine

SASKATOON – IsoEnergy Ltd. reported on decisions to reopen access to the underground at our Tony M uranium mine in the first half of 2024 (H1-2024), with the goal of restarting uranium production operations in 2025, should market conditions continue as expected. The decision to advance Tony M is underpinned by rising uranium prices, the climate of increasing support and demand for nuclear energy, and the recent announcement by Energy Fuels Inc. (EFR) to restart its uranium circuit at the White Mesa Mill, with whom IsoEnergy has a toll milling agreement.

Tony M, along with our Daneros and Rim projects, is one of three past-producing, fully-permitted, uranium mines in Utah owned by IsoEnergy, and is a large-scale, fully-developed and permitted underground mine that previously produced nearly one million pounds of U3O8 during two different periods of operation, from 1979-1984 and from 2007-2008.

The Company plans to reopen the main decline into the Tony M mine and gain underground access by the end of H1-2024. This critical step is expected to facilitate the assessment of the mine’s underground conditions, enable direct analysis of the uranium mineralization in place, and allow for the collection of necessary data required to prepare an efficient mine plan. The work program also includes underground and surface geological mapping of the sandstone-hosted uranium and vanadium mineralization to allow for more precise extraction plans for inclusion in an updated economic study.

The Company intends to complete a Study, which will provide further details on a potential restart date and a mine plan that will provide production plans and rates, expected operational costs and capital requirements.

Toll-Milling Arrangement with EFR – IsoEnergy has a toll milling arrangement with EFR for its Tony M, Daneros, Rim and Calliham projects, which guarantees the Company access to the White Mesa Mill, the only operational conventional uranium mill in the U.S. On December 21, 2023, EFR announced its plans to restart the White Mesa Mill uranium circuit in 2025. As a result, and to support additional feed, IsoEnergy intends to deliver ore to the Mill in time for the restart of the uranium circuit.

Commencement into Multi-Asset Production – The reopening of the Tony M mine is a first step in IsoEnergy’s plan to becoming a multi-asset uranium producer. IsoEnergy is also evaluating plans to restart operations at the Daneros and Rim mines, both of which were previous producers of uranium and vanadium, and are currently permitted for production.

CEO and Director Phil Williams, said, “With the uranium spot price now trading around US$100 per pound1, we are in the very fortunate position of owning multiple, past-producing, fully-permitted uranium mines in the U.S. that we believe can be restarted quickly with relatively low capital costs. Our existing toll-milling agreement with Energy Fuels places IsoEnergy in a unique position to become a conventional uranium producer in the near-term.

Multiple work streams are now underway to move our flagship Tony M Mine back toward production in 2025, in line with the timing Energy Fuels has announced for its White Mesa Mill for which IsoEnergy has a toll milling agreement. Given current and expected near term uranium market dynamics, we think this restart timing is ideal and would firmly place us in a very small group of uranium companies able to deliver uranium production in the near term. I would also like to welcome Josh to the team. We are fortunate to be able to attract such high-quality talent, which we believe is a testament to our projects and vision for the Company.”