ASX Release FAVOURABLE ECONOMICS FROM THE SCOPING … · Letlhakane Uranium Project contains a large global resource of 352 million pounds of uranium within this, 90 million pounds

A-Cap Resources Limited – Level 16, AMP Building, 140 St Georges Terrace, Perth Western Australia 6000 - T: +61 8 9220 9850 F: +61 8 9220 9820 A-Cap Resources Botswana (Pty) Ltd T/as A-Cap Resources - Plot 946 Old Matsiloje Rd, Francistown, Botswana - T: +267 241 9717

[email protected] www.a-cap.com.au Page 1 of 11

ASX Release

Friday 22 February 2013 ASX : ACB

FAVOURABLE ECONOMICS FROM THE SCOPING STUDY ON THE LETLHAKANE URANIUM PROJECT

A-Cap Resources Limited (“A-Cap” or “the Company”) is pleased to provide its shareholders with an update on the ongoing project development activities at the Letlhakane Uranium Project in Botswana. The Letlhakane Uranium Project contains a large global resource of 352 million pounds of uranium within this, 90 million pounds of higher grade resource at 284ppm has been identified and forms the basis of a Scoping Study just completed. The study is based on shallow open pit mining and heap leach processing to produce 3 million pounds of uranium per annum over a mine life in excess of 20 years. This internal Scoping Study has been completed using:

- Metallurgical results from the recently completed two metre optimisation column testwork at SGS, Perth

- Updated resources which were completed by Optiro late in 2012 and open pit optimisation studies by CUBE Consultants in late 2012 and January 2013

- Mining costs have been provided by Wirtgen Australia and have been amended to reflect the lithological and physical make up of each deposit

- Capital costs have been provided by various parties and added to by the A-CAP technical team and consultants

- Operating costs have been developed from mining, metallurgical and manning costs appropriate to the region with budget estimates supplied by third parties for key inputs.

Work is still in progress so this report provides an interim view of the Project with more detailed studies in progress. The scoping study indicates potential for a mine life in excess of 20 years subject to world market prices for uranium. A startup date in 2016 coincides with projected shortfalls in supply and forecast increased uranium prices.

HIGHLIGHTS

A resource of 90 million lbs of uranium at 284PPM U₃O₈ at a cut off of 200ppm within a global resource of 352Mlbs

An optimised in pit resource of 57 Mlbs of uranium grading 197ppm U₃O8

Additional unscheduled in pit resources of 13Mlbs at 196ppm U₃O8 at Gorgon West

Average recoveries of 71.5% from heap leach processing

A nine million tonne per annum open pit and heap leach project to produce 3Mlbs U₃O₈ pa

A mine life in excess of 20 years

Operating costs estimated at US$42 per pound U₃O₈ in the first 5 years and US$48 per pound in the first 10 years

Capital costs for plant and infrastructure of US$309 million

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Location of PL45/2004 and the Letlhakane Uranium Project

1. INTRODUCTION

The scoping study is based on work that has been undertaken over a period of three years and includes:

3,614 drill holes for 150,000 m of RC, hollow auger and diamond drilling

Several resource estimates

Pit optimisations and scheduling studies

Extensive metallurgical testwork has been carried out based on shallow open pit mining, whole of ore heap leach and solvent extraction

Environmental studies

Definition of water resources and permitting; and

Capital and Operating estimates It has involved a large group of staff and internationally recognised consultants including: Consultants

Technical Director: Dr Paul Woolrich

Lead Consultant: Lycopodium Minerals Pty Ltd in Perth

Geology and Resource Estimation: Optiro in Perth, H & S Consultants Pty Ltd in Australia and David Wilson (probe calibration) in Perth

Mining, Pit Optimisation and Scheduling: Cube Consulting, Perth

Mineralogy and Geology: Rob Bowell of SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd

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Optimisation, Mining and Scheduling: David Cairns in Perth, Cube Consulting Pty Ltd in Perth and Wirtgen of Germany

Metallurgical Testing: Mintek in South Africa and SGS Lakefield Oretest Pty Ltd in Perth

Metallurgy and Process Plant Design: Alan Taylor of Alta Metallurgical Services in Victoria, Grenvil Dunn of Orway Mineral Consultants in Perth, Randall Pyper of Kappes, Cassidy & Associates in Perth and Paul Woolrich in Perth

Engineering: Lycopodium Minerals Pty Ltd in Perth and Knight Piésold Pty Limited in Perth

Environmental (EIA): SLR Consulting (Africa) Pty Ltd in Johannesburg, South Africa (formally Metago) and Ecosurv in Gaborone, Botswana

Well Field Studies: Water Surveys Botswana (Pty) Ltd in Gaborone, Botswana

Botswana-based team:

Chairman, A-Cap Botswana: Anthony Khama

Chief Executive Officer: Paul Thomson

General Manager, Exploration: Steve Groves

Chief Geologist: Jerome Randabel

Resource Development Manager: Brent Laws

2. RESOURCES

The resources compiled by Optiro and reported in May 2012 at a cut-off grade of 200ppm are summarised in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1 2012 Mineral resource estimates for ALL DEPOSITS - 200 ppm U3O8 cut-off

Ore type Deposit

Indicated Inferred TOTAL

Mt U3O8

ppm U3O8

Mlbs Mt

U3O8

ppm U3O8

Mlbs Mt

U3O8

ppm U3O8

Mlbs

Secondary

Gojwane 2.9 256 1.6 - - - 2.9 256 1.6

Serule - - - - - - - - -

Gorgon West - - - - - - - - -

Total Secondary 2.9 256 1.6 - - - 2.9 256 1.6

Oxide

Gojwane 7.5 275 4.6 1.9 248 1.0 9.4 269 5.6

Serule - - - 5.4 280 3.3 5.4 280 3.3

Gorgon West - - - - - - - - -

Total Oxide 7.5 275 4.6 7.3 270 4.3 14.8 274 8.9

Primary

Gojwane 22.2 275 13.5 11.6 261 6.6 33.7 270 20.1

Serule - - - 50.0 317 35.0 50.0 317 35.0

Gorgon West

41.8 261 24.1 41.8 261 24.1

Total Primary 22.2 275 13.5 103.4 288 65.7 125.5 286 79.2

TOTAL All DEPOSITS* 33 274 20 111 287 70 143 284 90 * Totals have been rounded

At a 100ppm cut-off total resources are 1,040Mt at an average grade 153ppm for 351.8Mlbs contained U3O8. F

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3. PROCESS ROUTE AND METALLURGICAL RECOVERIES

The Letlhakane Uranium Project will process deposits consisting of several different uranium bearing ore types. These ore types are as follows:

Serule oxide and primary ore

Kraken oxide and primary ore

Gorgon oxide and primary ore

Mokobaesi Upper and Lower Mudstones – secondary ores

Mokobaesi Surficial Calcrete ore

These ores will be treated via either acid or alkali heap leach processing to produce uranium tetroxide product. In the first year of operation, the shallow surficial calcrete ore will be mined and processed via the alkali heap leaching route. The remaining ore types (oxide, primary and secondary mudstones) will be treated via the acid heap leach route after surficial calcrete ore is depleted. All ore types will be agglomerated to improve stability and permeability of the heaps. Discharge from the agglomerating drums will be conveyed to the leach pad, accessed via a series of overland conveyors. Testwork has shown that a strong acid leach followed by a lower strength acid lixiviant reduces the leach time and possibly reduces the extent of preg robbing. Solvent extraction will be employed as the principal uranium recovery method. The proposed process route is shown in Figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1 Overview Flowsheet for Letlhakane Project

Further work is in progress on optimising the process flowsheet and heap design concepts as well as determining the best rehabilitation and acid management options.

Rehabilitation costs will be developed as part of these programmes.

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Metallurgical testwork on the oxide and primary ore over the last few years has indicated that good metallurgical recoveries at optimum operating costs are achieved using acid heap leaching of minus 19mm whole of ore material. Recoveries of up to 77% (Table 3.1) were achieved and indicate that a two stage acid leach was the preferred processing route. Results confirm that the primary ore, which accounts for 83% of the total 352M lb U₃O₈ resource at Letlhakane, can be expected to achieve uranium recoveries of approximately 75%. Table 3.1 gives the results of the most recent 2 metre column leach tests on the oxide and primary ore. Expected recoveries in the secondary ores are shown in Table 4.1.

Table 3.1 Results of the Optimisation Column Leaches using 4 ore types

Column Ore Type

Crush Size, mm

Acid Regime

Calc Head ppm

U

Recovery %

OT-1 SWP 19 2 Stage 335 76.5

OT- 4 SWP 19 25/100 313 76.5

OT- 5 SWP 19 10/50 321 73.3

OT-10 SWP 8 25/100 291 72.9

OT-14 SWP 30 25/100 284 75.1

OT-3 GSP+KRP 19 2 Stage 330 74.9

OT-9 GSP+KRP 19 25/100 313 72.4

OT-7 GSP 19 25/100 284 70.3

OT-12 GSP 8 25/100 288 70.0

OT-16 GSP 30 25/100 305 68.5

OT-8 KRP 19 25/100 271 67.3

OT-13 KRP 8 25/100 281 70.4

OT-17 KRP 30 25/100 274 70.4

OT-2 MO 19 2 Stage 218 68.0

OT-6 MO 19 25/100 208 64.6

OT-11 MO 8 25/100 212 65.2

OT-15 MO 30 25/100 207 67.8

The Two Stage Acid regime includes a 10 day leach using 300g/l acid then reduced down to 50g/l acid leach. SWP – Serule West Primary, GSP+KRP – Mixed Gorgon & Kraken Primary, GSP – Gorgon South Primary, KRP – Kraken Primary, MO – Mixed Oxide.

4. OPEN PIT OPTIMISATIONS

Open pit optimisations were carried out in late 2012 and early 2013 by Cube Consulting based in Perth. The parameters used for the optimisations are summarised in Table 4.1.

Total in pit resources for the Letlhakane Project based on pit optimisations completed in late 2012 are summarised in Table 4.2 and amount to 184Mt at 197ppm for 57Mlbs recovered U3O8. Gorgon West was optimised in early 2013 and contains 41Mt averaging 196ppm U3O8 for 12.8Mlbs recovered (Table 4.3). Gorgon West has not yet been included in the mining schedule. This work is currently underway and is expected to extend the mine life by a further 5 years.

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Table 4.1 Metallurgical Recoveries and Costs used in 2012 and 2013 Optimisations

OPTIMISATION PARAMETERS Base Case - Acid Heap Leach US$100/t acid

DEPOSIT ORE TYPE Met

Recovery Processing

Cost *

Kraken Oxide 64.80% $7.25

Primary 71.80% $7.79

Gorgon Oxide 64.80% $7.25

Primary 71.80% $7.79

Mokabaesi Oxide 64.80% $7.25

Primary 71.80% $7.79

Upper Mudstone 74.10% $9.11

Lower Mudstone 76.20% $6.79

Serule Oxide 64.80% $7.25

Primary 73.40% $9.95

* Per tonne processed based on annual throughput of 9Mtpa

Alkali Heap Leach

Deposit Ore Type Met Recovery Processing

Cost *

Mokabaesi Secondary / Calcrete

80.0% $12.00

Table 4.2 Summary Letlhakane Deposits 2012 Optimisation Run 136a Shell 17

Shell Total

Tonnes Waste SR Ore Tonnes

Potential Life yrs

AVE GRADE

Recovered lbs

Ave Rec %

17 768,983,007 585,021,622 3.2

183,961,385

20 197 56,911,718

71.5%

Table 4.3 Summary Gorgon West 2013 Optimisation Results Run 136a Shell 4

Shell Total

Tonnes Waste SR Ore Tonnes

Potential Life yrs

AVE GRADE

Recovered lbs

Ave Rec %

4 177,522,810 136,376,622 3.3 41,146,188 4.6 196 12,754,290 71.8%

The reduced operating costs used in the 2012 optimisations means that the optimiser has been able to determine that some sub 200ppm areas are profitably extractable. Thus the grade of the optimised pits is less than the 200ppm cut-off resource grade and the tonnage is higher (183Mt Table 4.2 versus 143Mt Table 2.1).

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Although the recovered uranium indicates potential for a 25 year mine life based on the optimised pits it is likely that once a detailed mine schedule is completed the higher grade mineralisation will be exploited to reduce the strip ratio and lower the overall cost per pound U3O8. This will result in discarding some of the lower grade less accessible zones of uranium mineralisation.

5. OPERATING COSTS

The operating costs have been built up from first principles and for the metallurgical process have largely been compiled using Southern African costs by Grenvil Dunn of Orway Mineral Consultants and Randall Pyper of Kappes Cassidy & Associates in conjunction with A-Cap’s metallurgical consultants. The metallurgical costs and recoveries detailed in Table 4.1 are based on the results of the Two Stage Leach using minus 19mm ore – OT-1 Serule West Primary Ore, OT-2 Mixed Oxide Ore and OT-3 Composite of Kraken and Gorgon Primary Ore (Table 3.1). Recoveries have been discounted by 3% to reflect the scaling up from laboratory column tests to operational heaps. This data has been used for inputs to the open pit optimisation runs as discussed in Section 4. The base case metallurgical processing costs are based on an acid price of US$100/tonne. This assumes that either acid can be sourced from a Southern African source or locally sourced sulphur, eg pyrite, is used to produce acid on site. Acid has also been costed based on importation of sulphur from outside Southern Africa and production of acid on site. In this case, acid is costed at US$140 per tonne and results in an increase in operating cost of approximately seven percent.

Geologically the flat lying nature, regionally extensive and often thin undulating mineralised zones make this ore body suitable for the use of surface mining equipment. Wirtgen was approached in 2010 and has been working with A-Cap since then to establish operating parameters and costs for the various uranium deposits identified to date. It is intended to utilise a mining contractor to mine the waste material above the ore horizons using conventional mining techniques. A suite of physical tests for hardness and abrasivity including unconfined compressive strength (UCS), abrasion index (Ai) and Cerchar Abrasion Index (CAI) have been completed on a suite of rocks across the deposit. The mudstones tend to be fissile and break into biscuits the size of the core and 50mm thick. Because of this only rarely was there suitable core for UCS and CAI tests. The majority of samples tested for Ai and CAI were sandstone thus skewing the results. At least 70% of the deposit is mudstone with 20% sandstone of different grain sizes and 5 % carbonaceous sandstone. The mining costs have been developed in association with Wirtgen. The recent modelling of lithologies across all deposits shows that the lithologies are dominated by mudstone and the Wirtgen cost model has been modified to account for the dominance of these mudstones. Thus a cost (US$/t) and production rate (tonnes per hr) per lithology have been allocated in the optimiser (Table 5.1). F

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Figure 5.1 A Wirtgen 4200 Surface Miner Truck Loading at FMG’s Pilbara Operation

Table 5.1 Summary of Surface Miner Costs

PIT AREA Production Rate tpa Ave Cost

US$/t

From mRL

To mRL

Comments

MOKABESI

Waste 0 0 Nil

Ore 1 Oxide + secondary

3,988,166 $1.21 939 917 Surface 939m RL includes calcrete and soils

Ore 2 Oxide 4,026,253 $1.34 916 908 Largely oxidised mudstones

Ore 3 Primary 3,960,482 $1.43 906 900 Base of Pit 124b

KRAKEN

Waste 4,171,800 $1.19 932 929 3m Use same Waste figures as Gorgon South

Western Ore - Oxide 4,102,952 $1.30 928 906 22m Largely oxidised mudstones

Eastern Ore -Oxide 4,005,764 $1.41 910 903 Base of Pit 124b

Eastern Ore -Primary 3,901,424 $1.56 902 879 23m

GORGON SOUTH

Waste 4,171,800 $1.19 937 925 12m

Main Oxide Ore 3,946,761 $1.34 924 916 Largely oxidised mudstones

Various Primary Lenses 3,946,761 $1.34 915 892

Lower Primary Ore 3,871,751 $1.39 891 879

SERULE As for Gorgon South

Waste 4,171,800 $1.19 952 941 Ave Surface 952m

Ore 2 oxide 3,946,761 $1.34 940 927

Ore 3 Primary 3,871,751 $1.39 926 860

Manning and administration costs were estimated using management and consultant’s experience of conditions in Southern Africa for similar sized mines. These were allocated by area to Process, Mining and Administration. Table 5.2 summarises the operating cost per pound U3O8 for the Letlhakane Project based on the parameters discussed above and a production rate of 9 million tonnes of ore per year.

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Table 5.2 Summary of the Base Case Recovered Uranium and Cost per pound U3O8

Yrs Recovered lbs Grade ppm

U3O8

BASE CASE Ave US$/lb U3O8

$100/t acid

Ave Recovered Mlbs pa

1-5 15.4 275 $42.15 3.1

1-10 27.1 246 $48.41 2.7

1-15 43.2 216 $53.88 2.9

1-20.4 56.9 197 $58.17 2.8 Based on in pit resources from Table 4.2

6. CAPITAL COSTS

Plant capital has been developed based on information provided by Lycopodium Minerals Ltd with support from consultant metallurgists Grenvil Dunn of Orway Mineral Consultants and Randall Pyper of Kappes Cassiday & Associates.

Preproduction mining has been estimated from budget quotes for bulk waste movement during the Preproduction Period. Waste movements will be smoothed further with probable savings when the new mining schedule is completed. It is envisaged that the project will initially be contract mined.

Table 6.1 Letlhakane Capital Costs (Jan-13)

AREA Cost US$M EPCM &

CONTINGENCY 25%

Total US$

Treatment Plant $206.37 $51.59 $257.96

Infrastructure $41.17 $10.29 $51.46

Owners Pre-production Costs incl Project Management Team

$3.21 $0.80 $4.01

Preproduction Mining $56.00 $14.00 $70.00

Mobilise Mining Contractor $3.10 $0.78 $3.88

Preproduction Manning $0.71 $0.18 $0.89

Insurance $0.43 $0.11 $0.54

Medium/Heavy Equipment $0.47 $0.12 $0.59

First fills $4.21 $1.05 $5.26

Total $315.68 $78.92 $394.59

Assumes acid purchased from Southern African source

The project has a number of competitive advantages because of existing infrastructure located close to it. The main railway and highway linking Gaborone and Francistown pass through the eastern part of the licence. A high tension power line also passes through the project area with a substation located close to Serule village. A borefield has been located approximately 30km to the west of the Project area and an extraction permit has been issued.

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Importantly the mineralisation is located on relatively flat, degraded vegetation areas with no villages and thus the area is subject to minimal compensation and rehabilitation will be relatively easy. The plant and infrastructure costs with contingency and EPCM total US$309 million. With preproduction mining, first fill consumables, owner’s costs, manning and mobilisation and insurance a total capital requirement for construction is estimated at US$395 million. The plant includes crushing and agglomeration circuits, heap leach pads and associated conveyors, solvent extraction recovery plant for the main oxide & primary ore, ion exchange recovery plant for secondary ore and a refinery. Infrastructure costs include access roads, site roads, diversion channels, establishment of a borefield, power supply, railway sidings, acid handling facility and accommodation. Should purchased acid turn out not to be an option, and an acid plant required, additional capital will be necessary.

7. URANIUM PRICE

The large resource of 352 million pounds of uranium which comprises the Letlhakane Uranium Project provides a strong leverage to a rising uranium price. Recent consensus forecasts predict significant uranium price rises from 2015 when first production from Letlhakane is planned.

A research report “Uranium Supply Crunch and Critical Catalysts on the Horizon” prepared by David Sadowski from Canadian broker Raymond James (RJL July 2012) examines the uranium market, supply and demand out to 2030, and forecasts future prices. RJL predict a three year deficit starting in 2014 and growing in 2015 as the HEU agreement expires. New mine supply, chiefly ramp-up at Cigar, but also Africa (Imouraren, Husab) and Australia (Yeelirrie, Ranger 3 Deeps), pushes the market back into near-balance for several years. Supply is less certain further out, but based on existing discoveries, RJL see new production getting outpaced by demand growth in Asia and leading to increasing supply deficits through the late 2020s. RJL’s predicted prices are US$75/lb in 2015 and US$70/lb between 2016 and 2019. Similarly Morgan Stanley “Asia Insight: Uranium – Mine the Gap!” (September 20, 2012) is also predicting a uranium shortfall. Their analysis suggests that uranium supply may fall short of their projected demand growth, lagging by 4.4 Kt U (11.5Mlbs) in 2015, with the gap eventually widening to 6.9Kt U (17.8Mlbs) by 2020. While identifiable global uranium resources are ample the pipeline of material coming to market is not. On a conservative basis Morgan Stanley forecast US$67/lb in 2015 rising to US$74/lb in 2019 and on a more optimistic scenario US$77/lb in 2016 rising to US$97/lb in 2018. The average operating cost of US$42/lb at Letlhakane in the first 5 years is well within the uranium price forecasts ranging from US$70/lb to US$97/lb during this period.

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8. CONCLUSION

Additional studies are underway to further reduce capital and operating costs including improvement in recoveries and grade. Detailed scheduling of mine production will also be conducted to optimise higher grade mineralisation and reduce strip ratios. The scheduling of mine production from Gorgon West will be completed and this blended into the production from other areas to ensure that the lowest cost ore is mined early in the project life. It is expected that this work will result in lower average cost per pound.

At the same time, this project with its large global resource of 352 million pounds of uranium provides strong leverage to a rising uranium price and more resources can be incorporated into the mine schedule as prices rise. The Letlhakane Project contains one of the largest undeveloped uranium deposits globally, is located in one of the most favourable mining investment jurisdictions in the world and can provide a long term stable supply of uranium for the growing nuclear industry. The timing of the project is favourable with uranium prices expected to rise considerably in parallel with planned production.

***Ends*** For further information contact: Paul Thomson, CEO, A-Cap Resources + 61 8 9220 9850 Victoria Thomas, Six Degrees Investor Relations + 61 3 9645 7567

The information in this report which relates to Mineral Resources is based upon information compiled by Ian Glacken, and reported to ASX on 6 June 2012 . Ian Glacken is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Ian Glacken is an employee of Optiro Pty Ltd and has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2004 edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves.

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Documents

ASX Release FAVOURABLE ECONOMICS FROM THE SCOPING … · Letlhakane Uranium Project contains a large global resource of 352 million pounds of uranium within this, 90 million pounds