American Lithium lifts Macusani measured and indicated uranium to 57.16M pounds
Macusani's measured and indicated material grades 213 parts per million uranium oxide, with an updated preliminary economic assessment underway.
Mara Quinlan
American Lithium Corp. CVELI OTCMKTSAMLIF FRA5LA1 reported on Monday that measured and indicated resources at its Macusani uranium project in southeastern Peru total 57.16 million pounds of uranium oxide. That is about 10.1 per cent above the previous estimate's 51.9 million pounds in the indicated category.
Shares closed unchanged at C$0.34 on the TSX Venture Exchange at 4 p.m. EDT on Oct. 30, according to the CVELI quote page, before Monday's announcement. American Lithium is a developer with lithium projects in Nevada and Peru alongside Macusani.
The updated estimate, effective July 1, puts measured and indicated material at 121.908 million tonnes grading 213 parts per million uranium oxide.
An updated preliminary economic assessment is underway using current uranium pricing and development costs. The company said the resource revision reflects reporting requirements and economic constraints rather than changes to the underlying geological model.
Deloitte Consulting prepared the estimate using 1,152 diamond drillholes totalling 114,576 metres. The resource classification reflects geological confidence, drill spacing and estimation confidence.
The measured category contains 4.13 million pounds at 179 parts per million uranium oxide. Indicated resources account for another 53.03 million pounds at 216 parts per million.
Inferred resources stand at 65.32 million pounds, compared with 72.1 million pounds previously. The updated inferred grade is 258 parts per million uranium oxide.
The Nov. 2 estimate assumes a long-term uranium oxide price of US$100 a pound, twice the historical estimate's US$50 assumption. The earlier estimate used costs established in 2015.
Cut-offs are approximately 47 parts per million elemental uranium for open-pit material and 111 parts per million for underground material. The historical estimate used a global cut-off of 75 parts per million uranium; these cut-offs are expressed as uranium, while the headline grades are uranium oxide.
The company plans expansion and infill drilling, metallurgical piloting and ultimately a prefeasibility study. The company also pointed to more than 40 undrilled uranium surface occurrences across the project area.
"It remains the Company's intention to transition Macusani into a stand-alone uranium-focused company," chief executive Alex Tsakumis said in the release.
The company's project page also identifies alignment of Peruvian radioactive export and transport rules with the International Atomic Energy Agency as part of the path to production.
Its June 2 update described a national-interest declaration for a uranium and lithium forum. It separately identified permitting and government approvals as development risks.
Read more: Excellon Resources receives US$4.4M from Mallay concentrate shipments
The next development milestone is the updated preliminary economic assessment, which American Lithium said on Nov. 2 was well underway.
