Where is Neal Froneman heading with SXR Uranium One in the United States? "I think our focus at this stage is mainly Wyoming, Utah and Arizona because of the breccia pipes," said Froneman. "New Mexico is an area I don't know well. That is not an area we've been able to focus on." His focus will be Wyoming, for those companies who wish to become SXR's takeover candidates. "I am very positive about Wyoming," he pointed out. "I think it's going to become a uranium province of significance. I even included that bullet point in my presentation. It is a highly prospective area."
Coming from Neal Froneman, that's quite an endorsement for Wyoming. His company's Dominion uranium project in South Africa may be one of the largest undeveloped uranium deposits. It might also produce about 2.6 million ounces of gold, as a byproduct. In the Hargreave Hale Uranium Sector Review, published 20 April 2006, SXR's 163 million U3O8 code-compliant resource is said to be "roughly the size of Cigar Lake." Historic estimates (non NI 43-101 compliant) reportedly reach as high as 275 million pounds of U3O8 equivalent (220 million pounds of uranium oxide and 3.8 million ounces of gold).
We bring up the Dominion project as a comparison to what Froneman hopes to achieve at Green Mountain. While some predict SXR may run into troubles on the Wyoming properties, Froneman takes it with a grain of salt. "We're a company that's very proud of putting tough targets on the table. When we said we would produce in the first quarter of 2007 from Dominion, here in South Africa, the market said, 'Wow, that's not really possible.' But, we are going to surprise the market and actually do it."
There has been some skepticism about ramping up production to 5 million pounds of U3O8 per year in the U.S., starting in 2009. "Maybe I was slightly misunderstood there," he admitted. "We think we could start seeing some output in 2009. These are preliminary estimates. Allow us to complete the necessary technical work to confirm these targets and numbers."
Combining the expected uranium production from the U.S. operations with SXR's non-North American uranium mining, estimates show the company could annually be producing 10 million pounds of U3O8 in the early years of the next decade. Some have already begun calling SXR Uranium One the world's future fifth largest uranium producer. Is this premature? "One of our targets was that we had an asset base that took us to being able to become one of the top five uranium producers," Froneman explained. "I think the asset base we've secured so far gives us a really good shot at that title. I am very pleased with that title, and it is realistic."
James Finch contributes to StockInterview.com and other publications. Visit http://www.stockinterview.com to download your free copy of "Investing in the Great Uranium Bull Market: A Practical Investor's Guide to Uranium Stocks." You can always write to James Finch at jfinch@stockinterview.com
