Longer mine life for Toro's Wiluna
Toro Energy's bid to become WA's first uranium miner became more expensive yesterday after the company released an updated scoping study which valued the Wiluna project at $315.6 million.
The study re-valued Wiluna after projecting longer mine life from the addition of the Lake Maitland project to Toro's original Lake Way mine.
Lake Maitland was picked up from Mega Uranium in a $36.9 million scrip deal in August.
The project had a $269 million price before the acquisition, meaning Toro will need to find an extra $46.6 million.
The funding element of the project is emerging as a hot issue for Toro, particularly in light of the languid uranium price.
However, investors could be swayed by the increased size of the project, with the combined projects making it WA's second-biggest uranium deposit, with an overall resource of 76 million pounds.
Toro revealed the basic "C1 cost" for life of project was expected to average $US31.1 a pound.
Uranium was trading at $US35.60/lb yesterday.
Toro said it expected average annual production over the first 10 years of 2 million pounds.
Although the study included Lake Maitland it is not yet included under current government approvals.
