After having the mining license withdrawn by the Niger government at your most advanced project, GoviEx has re-focused its efforts on its Muntanga uranium project in Zambia. Can you bring us up to date with the change?

GoviEx had been doing everything we could to advance the Madaouela project.  As established in our DFS, we needed a baseline uranium price at US$65/lb to bring the project into production, and which was finally reached in October 2023. We had secured LOIs representing US$250 million in financing and started the construction of the main access road, and conducted topographic studies and design works, as well as other site works in view of the construction of the processing plant, but the Government nonetheless decided to withdraw our mining license. We see this decision as unlawful. We have sent notifications of dispute to the Government and initiated an administrative recourse in Niger, seeking an amicable solution. Such an amicable solution has not been reached, and we are looking at our legal options and will update our shareholders accordingly. 

Could you provide more details on the Muntanga project and the advancements towards a DFS?

Muntanga is a development project, with the DFS planned to be out by the end of this year. We did significant infill drilling between 2021 and 2023 to upgrade our resources from an inferred category. Today, 75% of the 45 million lb uranium resource is in the measured and indicated category, at a US$70/lb uranium price, based on the MRE put out in 2023. Muntanga is a very simple open-pit, heapleach operation. It benefits from very high recoveries and low acid consumption, as recently established in the recent metallurgical studies conducted. The rock is soft, and only need to crush it down to an inch in size, therefore not requiring milling. The land package on the Muntanga project comprises three licenses, over an area of 1,225.9 km². This year, we secured the option to acquire 51% of the Lundazi exploration license, strengthening our foothold in the country.