Uranium Resources leaching in situ reserves in Texas

Dallas-based Uranium Resources, which now trades on the Vancouver Stock Exchange, wants to become a significant player in the United States uranium industry. The company specializes in the solution mining of in-situ uranium ores, a leaching process which does not create mine tailings.

The Delaware corporation became public in 1987 when it merged with September Resources, a Vancouver listing. Uranium Resources is expected to trade over the counter in the United States by year-end.

Its customers are primarily U.S. electric utilities operating nuclear power plants, which purchase yellowcake for shipment to conversion plants where it’s refined and enriched before delivery to the reactors. The company claims its Texas production has been committed to major domestic utilities and deliveries are expected to range from 370,000 lb of uranium oxide in 1988 to 610,000 lb the following year.

The average sales price of its long-term contracts, including escalation factors, has been averaging $21-$22(US) per lb versus production cost of $10-$12 per lb, the company notes. Production began at the Kingsville Dome project in mid- April and it has exceeded 3,000 lb per day, says Uranium Resources. Annual production from the project is forcast at 800,000 lb. Another property, the Rosita in Duval Cty,, Tex., is expected to begin production later this year at an annual rate of 500,000 lb.

Originally a wholly-owned subsidiary of R. L. Burns, an oil and gas corporation, the company was acquired by its management in 1978. They sold out to Uranium Resources in 1981 but management exercised a repurchase option two years later. The company expects to spend approximately $8 million developing its uranium properties in 1988.