mesa mill operations

Good afternoon all. Just been flicking through some info for one of my stocks and became interested in the White Mesa Mill.

I found this that may be of interest:

Previously I noted this on a general uranium website:

‘Denison Mines President Ron Hochstein said that Denison's White Mesa Mill, the nation's only operating uranium mill, has ceased its regular milling operations for the remainder of 2009. "We will stop processing conventional ore through 2009, but will be processing alternate feedstock on a reduced scale, and we'll be laying off some personnel," said Hochstein. "Our costs are higher than the current spot price." (Telluride Daily Planet May 9, 2009)’

So I was of the impression that they ceased processing on the sole reason of U spot price.

Howver, from the Denison Mines Management Discussions and Analysis (which they post for investors) I fold the following info for the period ending March 31, 2009. The notes are dated MAY 13, 2009 – so only a little over a month ago AND IMPORTANTLY, AROUND THE SAME TIME AS THE QUOTE ABOVE APPEARED IN THE MEDIA.

The management discussion indicates that the closure had as much to do with upgrade and maintenance works and there is definitely an intention to start it back up! In fact, the start up date discussed by management was JUNE, 2009

‘The White Mesa mill processed conventional ore for the first three months in 2009. In April, the mill was shut down for planned maintenance. The mill will process conventional ore for at least the month of May to produce enough uranium to meet the committed contract share of 500,000 pounds for 2009. The construction of the new $5.0 million alternate feed circuit is on schedule with start-up anticipated in June 2009. Production from this circuit is anticipated to be up to 160,000 pounds in 2009. The Company expects to produce 0.5 to 0.8 million pounds of U3O8 and 0.5 million pounds of V2O5 at the White Mesa mill in 2009.’

Hope this is of interest.