ROYAL HUNTS COLORADO JEWELSSpinifexJOHN PHACEASToro Energy's...

ROYAL HUNTS COLORADO JEWELS

Spinifex

JOHN PHACEAS

Toro Energy's impending $385 million merger with Perth uranium counterpart Nova Energy has again put the spotlight on the increasingly fierce competition for quality assets and expertise amid booming prices and a looming global supply crunch.
With so much of Australia's potential new sources of supply locked up by mining bans in WA and Queensland, it is little surprise that local explorers are increasingly heading overseas to more uranium-friendly jurisdictions.
The latest convert to the offshore uranium game is the Phil Crabb-led junior Royal Resources.
Spun out of Thundelarra. Exploration to hold its non-nickel assets, Royal has until now been primarily focused on a swag of prospective iron ore assets in the Mid-West and Pilbara, most notably its Warriedar joint venture with Gindalbie Metals where high-grade hematite was discovered in April.
But on Friday, Royal made its most ambitious move yet when it finalised a deal to acquire 742 mineral claims in the Uravan mineral belt in Colorado by committing to spend $US4.5 million ($5.25 million) on exploration to earn an 80 per cent interest from US group Lynx2 LLC.
The deal follows the lead set by James Packer backed explorer Wild-Horse Energy which hopes to open two mothballed mines at Bison Basin and Sweetwater in neighbouring Wyoming.
Lying on Colorado's border with Utah, the Egnar claims cover 61sqkm in the belt, billed as one of biggest and oldest uranium-vanadium mining districts in the US, which has accounted for more than 30 per cent of its uranium production to date from 2500 recorded mines
Royal's claims all lie within 20km of more than 10 major underground uranium mines and a number of open pit operations, the last of which closed in the mid 1980s, including the Doremo operations l0km to the west which produced over 30 million pounds of uranium.
The leases also lie 88km from the operating White Mesa processing facility, owned by Canada’s Denison Mines which is amenable to toll-processing material from other miners' leases to keep the mill at optimum capacity.
Historically, the Uravan deposits have averaged about 5.5 pounds of uranium per tonne, or more than double the grade of the new Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia, and Roval is confident of identifying individual deposits containing over 20 million pounds. "So it's not a bad place to be," Royal director Brian Richardson said.
"But the key thing you've got to have in America is the people ... and what I liked is that these guys are geologists with so much local experience in uranium as well as the politics of getting permits, the process and the contacts to make things happen."
Though Royal will sole-fund work through to the completion of feasibility studies, Lynx2 principals James Black and John Downen will continue to oversee exploration on the permits.
Mr Richardson said drilling was slated to start in December and could potentially see Royal complete its first resource estimate by the middle of next year. On a best-case scenario, Royal could potentially be eyeing production within 2 ½ years, he said.

Two weeks ago this would have put 10-20% on sp. Still think it will be 20% higher then todays close by the end of the week.
Plenty more info to come!!