Thor Energy plc (LON:THR, ASX: THR, OTCQB: THORF) has announced the signing of a term sheet with DISA Technologies, Inc. to seek to evaluate and if successful, treat historically abandoned uranium mine waste dumps and recover saleable uranium and other critical minerals concentrates at Thor’s Colorado uranium claims. Thor holds 25% ownership rights to uranium minerals on U.S. Bureau of Land Management via its US subsidiary Standard Minerals Inc. that holds the projects in Colorado in the United States, along with the 75% holder, London-listed Metals One PLC (AIM: Met1).
Highlights:
· Standard to be paid a Gross Revenue Share of any saleable uranium and other critical mineral concentrates recovered from waste at its Colorado Projects via deployment of DISA’s modular mobile plants utilising the patented High-Pressure Slurry Ablation system.
· No capital expenditure or operating expenditure is payable by Standard or Thor.
· Thirteen separate prospective waste dumps have been ground surveyed at Standard’s Colorado Projects; others may be added to this inventory over time.
· Standard to receive a percentage of gross product sale revenue stream, minus certain post-treatment allowable costs. A sliding scale with a base rate of 2.5%, through to 4.0% in certain metals pricing environments.
· DISA will be the operator of the Colorado Projects and to pay all associated costs of economic evaluation, permitting, treatment and ongoing remediation.
Advantages of HPSA:
· The High-Pressure Slurry Ablation (“HPSA”) process treats surface dumps of previously partially mined and aggregated material.
· DISA has been working with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) since 2021 on a robust licensing process, which is expected to conclude soon. This would make DISA the first company to receive a Service Providers License (SPL) to remediate abandoned uranium mine waste.
· Aside from extracting valuable uranium and critical minerals, the process delivers significant improvements to the local environment and watersheds by removing, on average, 90% of the uranium and radium-226 content from the waste, as evidenced by a treatability study DISA completed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency1.
· Strong US Government support for domestic recovery of uranium and critical minerals from legacy mine waste. This activity is directly in line with the recent Secretarial Order from the Department of the Interior (Order No. 3436: Unlocking Critical and Strategic Minerals from Mine Waste, Cutting Red Tape, and Restoring American Dominance in Strategic Mineral Production).
Next Steps:
· Characterisation program with a combination of assay and gamma probe to determine likely quantities of uranium and other recoverable minerals present in the waste dumps and economic evaluation.
· Application and completion of all requisite permits needed to commence treatment of waste and recovery of payable concentrates using HPSA technology.
· Future potential sale of metals concentrates and payment of gross revenue to Thor via Standard.
· Parties will immediately move to finalise and execute a more detailed binding agreement and complete any outstanding conditions precedent to the transaction.
Alastair Clayton, Thor Energy Chairman, commented:
“We are pleased to announce the Term Sheet executed with DISA today to help facilitate Thor potentially becoming revenue-generating from US uranium and critical metals production. Moving our US uranium projects forward in a non-dilutionary manner has been a priority for some time. DISA is a world leader in its materials upgrading technology, and its patented HSPA process is considered a revolutionary, non-chemical technology.
“Importantly, DISA’s NRC licensing process is expected to conclude soon. This would make DISA the first company to receive a Service Providers License to remediate abandoned uranium mine waste, a hugely appealing regulatory framework. A major benefit is that the process does more than just extract value, it also leaves behind a substantially improved local environment by remediating these historic legacy sites. Thor looks forward to working with DISA going forward as we move towards generating revenue from these recycled materials.”
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Figure 1 – Example of Gen B modular HPSA components – Source: DISA
