11 May 2011 07:00
11 May 2011
VANE Minerals plc ("VANE" or the "Company")
Uranium Operations Update
VANE Minerals plc announces an overall update of its planned operations for the uranium division, held and operated in its wholly-owned subsidiary, VANE Minerals (US) LLC.
Highlights
·; Focus on Arizona state land held projects, which total 126 breccia pipe targets
o All state land breccia pipes held under U1 JV
·; Two drill rigs currently in operation, testing 8 permitted targets
o A further 12 drill permits pending
·; Objective is to test up to 20 pipe targets within the next 12 months
·; Scoping study to commence on North Wash H2 2011
·; Non-core targets relinquished
Northern Arizona - Breccia Pipes
The main operations within the uranium division are within the high-grade breccia pipe portfolio. VANE continues to focus on its projects located on Arizona state lands, which total 126 pipe targets. The Company has two drill rigs in operation at the moment testing 8 permitted targets, with a further 12 drill permits pending. The Company intends to test up to 20 pipe targets within the next 12 months.
VANE has an additional 155 targets on federal lands that have been under a Segregation Order since July 2009, when the U.S. Secretary of Interior introduced a 2-year "Time Out" on staking new claims and severe restrictions on operations on existing claims within an area of approximately 1 million acres. The U.S. governmental studies and analysis of the federal lands are now coming to an end and the Company expects that a decision on the future of these claims will be received this summer. Should the results of these claims be reverted back to normal operations, VANE would have an additional 155 targets to test, 79 of which are 100% owned by VANE and not held within joint venture with Uranium One.
Recently, the Arizona Senate passed bill SCM 1007 opposing the segregation and proposed withdrawal of the federal lands due to the economic impact on the State of Arizona, the excellent track record of reclamation of previous mines, and the strategic importance to the U.S. of the uranium resources. SCM 1007 urges the Secretary of Interior to refrain from withdrawing federal lands within northern Arizona lands from new mining claims and exploration.
Details of the bill can be found at:
http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/50leg/1r/bills/scm1007p.pdf
There can be no guarantee that the claims will be reverted back to normal operation.
Utah and Colorado
Outside of the high-grade breccia pipe operations, VANE has retained the North Alice Extension, North La Sal, Happy Jack Mine and North Alice projects on care and maintenance.
VANE's drilling on Coyote Basin (further details of which are contained in the Company's announcements made on 19 January 2010 and 26 April 2010) did not confirm the historical resource details project as originally introduced to VANE and as such VANE has relinquished this project. VANE's total incurred expenditures on Coyote Basin were US$132,000.
In addition, VANE has also relinquished the Abajo "grass-roots" project. This decision was made as a cost-savings measure due to market uncertainty during the global economic crisis.
At North Wash, the Directors believe that the additional vanadium credit warrants completing a scoping study to evaluate the economics of the project at today's prices. The Directors expect this to commence in H2 2011.
Kris Hefton, COO, commented: "We continue to drive forward the high-grade pipe portfolio on state lands with 2 drill rigs running at present. We plan to test the individual targets until positive results require us to retain a drill on a single site to delineate a resource. Following the successful delineation of 1.123 million lbs of uranium oxide from the Wate pipe in early 2011, we look to expand this resource base with discoveries on additional mineralized pipes during the course of the year."
For further information, please contact:
VANE Minerals plc +44 (0) 20 7667 6322
Matthew Idiens
Allenby Capital +44 (0) 203328 5656
Brian Stockbridge/Alex Price
Threadneedle Communications +44 (0) 20 7653 9850
Laurence Read/Beth Harris