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South Texas Production Pipeline
Rosita, Alta Mesa, Kingsville Dome, and Other Texas Assets
South Texas Production Highlights
3 Fully licensed, fully constructed, and 100% enCore-owned producon facilities
3.6 million pounds U3O8 per year combined capacity
Production targeted for 2023 with satellite feed to the Rosita Central Uranium Processing Plant
Production expansion potential with minimal investment
enCore owns and controls 3 of the 4 licensed ISR uranium plants in Texas, a known and safe ISR uranium jurisdiction. There are currently 11 licensed ISR plants in the United States
About
enCore Energy owns and operates three of the four licensed uranium production facilities in Texas. Each of enCore’s facilities are fully licensed and constructed, 100%-owned, and are past-producing uranium production facilities in Texas, a known and safe ISR uranium jurisdiction. There are currently only 11 licensed ISR plants in the United States.
enCore’s operational plan is to produce uranium derived from multiple remote Satellite IX operations, in turn to be processed at one of its central processing plants (CPPs). enCore’s three CPPs are strategically located in north-central, central, and southern portions of south Texas.
Central Processing Facilities
Rosita Central Processing Facility
Location
Located 60 miles from Corpus Christi, the plant is located in the South Texas Uranium Belt
Production
Licensed ISR production facility with 800,000 pounds of U3O8 per year capacity with past production of 2.65 million pounds of U3O8
Status
Expansion resource drilling and plant refurbishment underway
The Rosita Central Processing Plant is one of enCore’s key assets in advancing production in 2023. The Rosita CPP is a fully-licensed ISR production facility with a production capacity of 800,000 pounds of U3O8 per year. The Rosita Central Processing Plant will receive uranium loaded resins from various remote South Texas satellite wellfields. The plant is situated approximately 60 miles west of Corpus Christi, Texas.
Initial production of uranium at Rosita began in 1990 and continued until July 1999. During that time approximately 2.65 million pounds of U3O8 were produced. Facility refurbishment and upgrades were completed in 2022. The Rosita CPP currently has infrastructure in place to increase capacity substantially when needed.
At Rosita, enCore has acquired multiple uranium mineral properties to be developed and placed into production to feed the Rosita CPP. In addition to the 200-acre tract of land owned by the Company for the Rosita CPP, additional property holdings consist of mineral leases from private landowners covering approximately 3,338 acres of mineral rights.
Alta Mesa Central Processing Facility
Location
80 miles from the Rosita plant and 75 miles from the Kingsville Dome plant
Production
Total operating capacity of 1.5 million pounds of uranium/year
Status
Maintained in a state of readiness by existing owner, Energy Fuels, to rapidly resume production
The Alta Mesa Processing Facility consists of a fully-licensed, past-producing In-Situ Recovery (ISR) uranium plant along with existing uranium resources located 80 miles south of the Rosita CPP and 75 miles southwest of the Kingsville Dome CPP, also owned by enCore. Alta Mesa is the latest addition to enCore’s South Texas assets following an acquisition from Energy Fuels completed in February 2023. By adding the Alta Mesa operations into the Company’s production pipeline, enCore has positioned itself to become the leading company focused on US domestic uranium production.
The Alta Mesa facility has a total operating capacity of 1.5 million pounds of uranium per year; 2 million pounds per year of drying capacity, total flow capacity of 7,500 GPM using upflow IX, downflow polishing IX, in-place elution, and two rotary vacuum dryers.
The Alta Mesa asset adds over 3.4 million pounds Measured and Indicated Resource and 16.7 million pounds Inferred Resource, significantly increasing enCore’s total south Texas resources. The Alta Mesa acquisition also provides 200,000 acres of private land in the South Texas Uranium Belt with multiple known upside exploration and development opportunities.
Kingsville Dome Processing Facility
Location
35 miles southwest of the city of Corpus Christi, Texas
Production
Approximately 4.2 million pounds of U3O8 has been produced
Status
Standby since 2009
The Kingsville Dome Central Processing Facility is a past-producing facility located 35 miles southwest of the city of Corpus Christi, Texas. The Kingsville Dome CPP was constructed in 1987 and has operated intermittently from 1988 to 2009, at which point it was placed on standby.
Approximately 4.2 million pounds of U3O8 has been produced from the Kingsville Dome project area. The facility consists of two resin processing circuits that are constructed to receive uranium loaded resins from multiple remote satellite wellfield ion exchange facilities. The CPP has a full uranium elution and precipitation circuit that is constructed to feed a dual yellowcake drying circuits. The Kingsville Dome CPP currently has one operational yellowcake dryer.
The Kingsville Dome CPP will serve to increase enCore’s overall production capacity, when necessary, should projects exceed the current capacity of either the Rosita CPP or Alta Mesa CPP, or to receive uranium loaded resins from future nearby producing sites in South Texas.
Current South Texas Projects
enCore is currently advancing multiple uranium properties toward rapid production as Satellite Ion-Exchange (IX) wellfield operations. These properties will supply uranium loaded IX resin to feed either the Rosita Central Processing Plant or the Alta Mesa Processing Plant. The Kingsville Dome Central Processing Plant will serve to increase capacity when necessary, should projects exceed the capacity of either the Rosita CPP or Alta Mesa CPP, or to possibly receive uranium loaded resins from yet to be developed producing sites nearby.
Rosita Extension and Rosita South Projects, Duval County, Texas
Rosita Extension: enCore is completing wellfield development of mineral resources previously included in URI’s former production area authorization PAA-4. This PAA is located within the Rosita Project radioactive materials license and injection permit boundaries. The mineral resources in this area were never produced and present a rapid opportunity for early production. The Rosita Extension PAA-4 is the first production area planned as a new source of uranium for the Rosita ISR Central Processing Plant scheduled to come online in Q3 of 2023.
Rosita South: enCore announced positive results from its on-going uranium delineation and exploration drill programs at its 100%-owned Rosita South project. Thirty-two drill holes totaling approximately 11,000 feet, include 20 delineation holes and 12 exploration holes. The exploration drilling identified 8 mineralized sands plus an additional 4 potentially mineralized sands, all within 800 feet of the surface. The discovery and identification of the 10 previously unknown deeper sands provide significant potential for discovery of additional uranium resources across the entire Rosita project area. The Rosita South exploration project is located within 6 miles of the Rosita CPP, providing an optimal source for satellite feed to the Rosita plant.
Uranium mineralization at the Rosita project occurs as roll-fronts hosted in porous and permeable sandstones of the Goliad Formation, at depths ranging from 125 to 350 feet below the surface and within the lowermost Goliad Formation and underlying Oakville Formation at depths ranging between 450 and 800 feet.
Upper Spring Creek – Brown Area Project, Live Oak County, Texas
enCore is acquiring or has acquired mineral properties located in Live Oak County, within the area described generally as the Upper Spring Creek Project. These properties are comprised of numerous non-contiguous fee leases currently covering an area of approximately 459 acres of mineral rights, and the Company is actively acquiring additional mineral properties as part of this project. The project includes mineral properties that were identified by recent drilling included Signal Equities LLC database that the Company acquired in December 2020. These properties are intended to be developed using satellite ion-exchange (IX) plants that will provide loaded resin for processing at the Rosita CCP.
Two properties within this project area are currently in the beginning stages of development as PAA-1, with production scheduled for 2025. These known historical resources, although not classified to NI 43-101 mineral classification standards, were previously licensed and permitted for extraction. Active exploration to expand current resource assets is currently underway on adjacent enCore-controlled properties, which will substantially increase resources for production.
Mineralization at the Upper Spring Creek -Brown Area occurs as roll-front deposits hosted within the lowermost Oakville Formation at depths averaging between 300 and 450 feet. The Upper Spring Creek – Brown Area properties are located approximately 35 miles from the Rosita CPP.
Upper Spring Creek – Brevard Area Project, Bee County, Texas
enCore is acquiring or has acquired mineral properties comprised of non-contiguous fee leases covering an area of approximately 274 acres of both surface and mineral rights, and the Company is actively acquiring additional mineral properties as part of this project. The project includes known mineral properties that were identified by recent drilling included in the Signal Equities, LLC database that the Company acquired in December 2020. These properties are intended to be developed using satellite ion-exchange (IX) plants that will provide loaded resin for further processing at the Rosita CCP.
Mineralization at the Upper Spring Creek – Brevard Area properties occur as roll-front deposits hosted within the lowermost Oakville Formation at depths averaging between 200 and 400 feet. The Upper Spring Creek – Brevard Area properties are located approximately 55 miles from the Rosita CPP.
Butler Ranch Project, Karnes County, Texas
The Butler Ranch project is comprised of several non-contiguous fee leases covering an area of about 663 acres of mineral rights. The Butler Ranch project is located in the southwestern Karnes County uranium mining district, one of the most productive uranium producing areas in Texas. It is about 45 miles southeast of the city of San Antonio, Texas, 12 miles northwest of the town of Kenedy, Texas and about 85 miles from enCore’s Rosita CCP.
Previous exploration by operators including Conoco and Kerr-McGee totaled more than 2,000 drill holes, resulting in the delineation of several deposits within the vicinity of Butler Ranch. These drill programs were limited to identifying near surface mineralization amenable to open pit mining. Thus, in many areas the potential for deeper uranium bearing sand units minable using ISR has never been tested.
Uranium mineralization at Butler Ranch occurs in the form of roll-front deposits hosted primarily in sandstones of the Jackson Group, including the Deweesville and Stones Switch sandstone members of the Whitsett Formation. Some mineralization in the area also occurs as tabular bodies associated with lignite (carbonaceous material) or in somewhat permeable units in the Conquista Clay.
Alta Mesa Projects, Brooks County, Texas
Multiple opportunities exist at Alta Mesa, both from known resources within the mining lease, and for known exploration potential within the mining lease and beneath the almost 200,000 acres of adjoining lands. Of these, enCore’s initial activity at Alta Mesa is to begin wellfield development of PAA-7 in Q1 of 2023. PAA-7 will provide significant U3O8 production beginning in Q4 of 2023. PAA-7 was previously delineated and approved in 2013, but never put into production due to existing market conditions at the time. PAA-7 provides contains approximately 1.47 Mlbs of readily accessible resource for rapid production through the Alta Mesa CPP.
Multiple exploration and development opportunities exist in the Goliad, Oakville, and Catahoula Formations within enCore’s lease boundaries in both Brooks and Jim Hogg Counties. enCore will begin prioritizing exploration activities to define and extend these areas concurrent with production restart initiatives in 2023.
Uranium mineralization at the Alta Mesa project location locally occurs as roll-front deposits hosted in porous and permeable sandstones of the Goliad Formation, at depths ranging from 300 to 600 feet beneath the surface. Significant additional potential exists regionally within the project boundary within the Goliad Formation at depths between 400 and 500 feet, within the Oakville Formation at depths between 1050 and 1300 feet, and within the Catahoula at depths between 450 and 600 feet.
