OKR pursuing development of large US uranium resource
Amid a pressing need for US/North American based uranium, our uranium Investment Okapi Resources (ASX:OKR) is moving ahead with its plans to develop one of the largest uranium deposits within US borders.
Today, OKR lodged a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) application covering two deposits at its most advanced US uranium project in Colorado.
If approved, this will effectively allow OKR to conduct drilling at the Colorado project on a rolling basis - 20 holes at a time.
Below you can see the two deposits and the areas that the permit applies to (red lines):
We see this as an indication of OKR’s intent to develop the Tallahassee project which has an existing JORC resource of 49.8 million pounds of U3O8 (uranium).
OKR flagged today that pending permit granting in Q4 of this year, the company will progress a scoping study at the project, which would be due for completion in 2024.
That scoping study could prove to be important given some of the macro tailwinds we are following closely.
The US has signalled it needs to drastically increase its domestic and friendly supply of uranium (OKR has projects across the US and Canada).
Furthering that aim are two major bits of law which are currently in the US government’s legislative pipeline.
Read all about that legislation, OKR’s rapidly approaching drilling program in Canada’s most prolific uranium district and what we’re seeing in the US uranium market in the below note:
What’s next for OKR?
This is what we think the near-term newsflow for OKR will look like:
🔄 Drilling at Athabasca Basin
We expect OKR to drill its most promising projects in Canada in Q3 of this year.
🔄 Drilling at most advanced project in Colorado (which has a JORC resource)
A permit is in place for 18,200m across 60 drill holes - we want to see OKR firm up a timeline for this drilling.
🔄 Drilling at second Colorado project
At the Maybell project OKR has engaged a company called BRS Engineering to work over historical data - the company has direct experience at the Maybell Project when it was operating. We’d be looking for a drill program in H2 2023
🔄 Progress on enrichment tech
Scientific progress and regulatory approvals aren’t linear processes but we are looking for one of the following three things to happen on the enrichment front:
🔲 Further validation and extend the enrichment performance (show how well it works)
🔲 Achieve continuous operation at bench scale (scale up process)
🔲 Regulatory approvals
