Since the last resource update in June 2011, a further 806 drill holes have been completed, mostly within the Kendrick area, focusing on converting inferred resources to the indicated category. The Kendrick area is located to the west of the Ross production unit.
Peninsula has now resolved to commence commercial operations at Lance, where it envisages three production units – Ross, Kendrick and Barber – feeding into a central processing plant with an expandable capacity of up to 3 million pounds U3O8 (1154 tU) per year. The modular central processing plant would comprise up to four units, each capable of producing up to 0.75 million pounds U3O8 (288 tU) per year each.
The new resource figures will be combined with the findings of two earlier studies to produce a revised feasibility study, expected to be published within weeks.
Construction work, which is expected to take six to nine months, is to begin in the second half of 2012, with first production in 2013.