DEEP YELLOW LIMITED Deep Yellow Limited (Deep Yellow or Company) provided an update on the progress of the Tumas Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) status and the evaluation work undertaken on Mulga Rock Project since the merger with Vimy Resources Limited (Vimy) occurred on 5 August 2022. The Tumas DFS has been completed, and the draft of the study document is under internal review by management and Board. The preliminary results indicate the Tumas Project remains commercially attractive despite capital and cost inflation consistent with the global mining environment.
Examination of the draft financial model has indicated areas which can be further optimised to deliver increased value, before the DFS is finalised. The optimisation program will focus on the pre-production mining plan and its associated schedule to deliver a further uplift in value through a final detailed review of the development schedule and costs. The expectation at this stage is that the DFS results will be ready for release to the market in February 2023.
The Company anticipates the optimisation outcome will provide a sound basis for preparation to proceeding with Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) in early CY2023. As advised in its September quarter activities report, Deep Yellow initiated an evaluation program after identifying, from its pre-merger due diligence work, the strong potential that a significant value uplift could be achieved for this project by increasing focus on recovery of critical minerals associated within the Mulga Rock deposit. This re-appraisal included an assessment of minerals such as copper, nickel, cobalt, zinc, and rare earths (particularly neodymium and praseodymium) known to be present in these deposits in potentially economic quantities.
The study investigated the possibility of achieving further value to that identified by previous studies on this project by considering a less selective mining approach within and immediately below the existing pit designs. This less selective approach considers all the economic mineral endowment (in-pit value) existing in these polymetallic deposits, rather than focussing solely on uranium. To date the work has been restricted to the Ambassador and Princess deposits, (as these appear to have the critical mineral endowment and are the main sources of ore reserves for the Vimy 2018 DFS where a 15-year life of mine was determined.
