Start of uranium production from Blue Sky mine in Argentina possible within three years

Blue Sky Uranium Corp's Ivana uranium mining project in Argentina could start production within three years, as Argentina's need for uranium grows, company CEO Nikolaos Cacos said in an interview May 20

"We'll skip pre-feasibility and go straight to feasibility study, hopefully within a year, due to the high level of confidence in the project," Cacos said. Production should start during the current term of Argentine President Javier Milei, a strong supporter of expanding the country's nuclear power industry.

Ivana, in Rio Negro province, is designed to process uranium concentrate through alkaline leaching, with no added oxidants required, according to Cacos. Production is estimated at 17 million lb of U3O8, or around 1.5 million lb/yr, over an 11-year mine-life. Vanadium output is projected at 8.1 million lb.

Ivana is the most advanced of Argentina's series of new uranium mining projects after mining was halted in the country around 40 years ago, due to a lack of financial resources, according to Cacos.

Various promising deposits have been identified in the country in recent years, including others by Blue Sky, a unit of diversified resources management company Grosso Group. "We're just scratching the surface with Ivana," Cacos said.

Production from Ivana should allow Argentina to attain self-sufficiency in uranium, he added. The nation currently imports around 750,000 lb/yr of uranium from Kazakh miner Kazatomprom. Argentina does have conversion and enrichment capability, but no domestic uranium mining.

"Argentina is a nuclear country," Cacos stated. "The government will be required by legislation to purchase all the uranium Ivana produces."

Argentina has three operating reactors with a combined capacity of 1,755 MW and is currently constructing a small modular reactor. Nuclear power supplies around 8% of Argentina's electricity mix, with an aim for it to eventually reach 20%.

In line with the country's December nuclear plan, producers may also export uranium to other South American countries and the US, once new mines, including Ivana, start production.

Blue Sky's Ivana joint venture, struck in recent weeks with Abatare Spain SLU, a unit of major Argentine industrial group COAM, will provide the Ivana project with financial backing. Abatare will initially put up $35 million to advance Ivana to the feasibility study stage.

As surface mining will be used at Ivana, with uranium deposits at most 30 meters deep, overall capital costs for the project are put at a relatively economic $160 million, also expected to be funded by Abatare.

C1 cash production costs are meanwhile foreseen at just under $24/lb, Cacos said. Such costs are those directly related to on-site production.

With the investments it is set to make, Abatare will have the right to take an 80% interest in the Ivana project, with Blue Sky retaining a 20% interest through to production.

Abatare will also have first option to take stakes in other Blue Sky uranium projects near Ivana which are at earlier stages of exploration.

Bullish on prices

Cacos is bullish on the outlook for uranium prices, on market expectations of a supply gap lasting "for the next couple of decades" as the nuclear power sector grows to meet "huge demand" from population growth and electrification, including from the AI sector. Uranium oxide prices "could rise to $200-250/lb in the short term, before the supply gap starts to be closed by new uranium mine capacity," he claimed.