Wildhorse JV to develop Hungarian uranium project

West Perth-based uranium explorer WildHorse Energy Ltd and joint venture partner Sparton Resources Inc will develop a uranium project in Hungary with Hungarian energy utility Bakonyi Erőmű Zrt, the company has announced.

WildHorse and Canada-based Sparton's joint venture Eurash will have exclusive rights to review Bakonyi's large piles of mining slag and fly ash, waste products from the utility's coal fired power station at Ajka in western Hungary.

Wildhorse says the products contain a variety of minerals, including uranium, and Eurash plans to evaluate the uranium content of the ash as well as other metals in the mining slag, with a view to developing a project to recover and process the uranium and other metals.

To produce uranium from coal ash, it is necessary to move the ash from existing stockpiles and process the material through a standard uranium recovery plant. This avoids mining development and operational costs. Depending upon the regulatory regime, the project can be progressed quickly. It is conceivable that this venture could produce U3O8 as early as 2009.

The full text of a WildHorse announcement is pasted below

Eurash (a joint venture between WildHorse Energy and Sparton Resources) has signed an agreement with Bakonyi Erőmű Zrt (BEZ), the owner of large volumes of mining slag and fly ash as waste products from a coal fired power station at Ajka in western Hungary.

These waste products contain a variety of minerals, including uranium. Eurash plans to evaluate the uranium content of the ash as well as other metals in the mining slag, with a view to developing a project to recover and process the uranium and other metals.

The Ajka site contains several heaps of ash, totalling close to 20 million tonnes of material.

Measurements of the these heaps between 1992 and 1995 indicate that U3O8 grades ranged between 94 and 152 ppm in the ash, and between 33 and 137 ppm in cinders.

To produce uranium from coal ash, it is necessary to move the ash from existing stockpiles and process the material through a standard uranium recovery plant. This avoids mining development and operational costs. Depending upon the regulatory regime, the project can be progressed quickly. It is conceivable that this venture could produce U3O8 as early as 2009.

This agreement gives Eurash exclusive rights to complete a full geological and technical review of existing data, and collect additional information as required. This will include sampling, analyses, and testwork on leaching recoveries. This test program will take place over the next 3-6 months. It will be conducted under the direction of US based
engineering and mineral processing company Lyntek Inc, which has been involved in over 30 uranium recovery projects in 10 different countries and is a recognised leader in uranium extraction process engineering.

Assuming these results demonstrate economic recovery of uranium, Eurash intends to complete a feasibility study to determine the engineering and economic parameters for commercial development. Such a study will also address environmental and community issues in the development of any future project.

Commercial development of this project would result in the potential for uranium sales within the European Union, combined with assistance in the environmental clean up of these waste heaps at the Ajka site.

Sparton Resources has considerable experience in secondary source extraction in China, using established ion exchange technology (as used for In Situ Leach processes) which allows selective recovery and concentration of uranium. It has been working with the Xiaolongtang Guodian Power Company of Yunnan, in the People's Republic of China for over 12 months and is currently undertaking a three-phase program to test and possibly commercialise the extraction of uranium from waste coal ash at the company's thermal power stations in central Yunnan province.