Apologies if someone has spoken to this topic previously. I have been looking for any news around low pH processes in Wyoming and the USA generally. These have been opposed in the past on environmental grounds and so PEN is trail blazing here. Anyway I picked up the following article that discusses PEN's application through subsidiary Strata Energy for an amendment to its mining permit (
https://county17.com/2018/04/10/strata-energy-submits-amendment-request-to-wyoming-deq/).
The article indicates that "
the amendment process is expected to take 18 to 24 months before the changes can be implemented.". The article is dated April 2018. So regardless of the trial of low pH currently underway, we can expect another 12 months before obtaining approval (all going well) PEN states in its latest Quarterly Review that it is hoping for an approval in 2019 but I suspect that this is optimistic and definitely late 2019, if successful. I also found another reference that indicated up to 2 years for approval with the article dated October 2018 but since PEN's application (through Strata was in April 2018) then I would start the clock from then.
Needless to say, environmental pressure groups/lobbies are in action opposing the low pH amendment. Given previous history banning low pH, I think we need to treat this seriously and it is the interest of PEN shareholders to track the opposition. The company is certainly not going to advertise the opposition but it is a serious risk factor.
A perception of attitudes can be found at
http://wise-uranium.org/umopuswy.html where it states:
"The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality now makes it clear why it was so keen to take over uranium mining regulation from the NRC (see here): The comment period for its first action under the new regime was set to just two weeks - an approach so far only known from jurisdictions where public involvement is only meant to be a front. And, moreover, none of the related documents are made available on Internet, they have to be inspected at the government office. Another disturbing aspect of the affair is that the field leach trials had only started a few days earlier (see below), so the application was filed before any results from these tests were available - again, an approach so far only known from jurisdictions where public involvement is only meant to be a front."
I have to agree that the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality is acting precipitately with the 2 week period for public submissions and no doubt PEN is quietly applauding their gung-ho approach.
As an off-topic comment, after reading a number of articles that indicate the alkaline leaching provides minimal extraction of U3O8, you really have to question the funding and commencement of ISR extraction at Lance. It was not too long before PEN ran into trouble over this and looked to change to a low pH process. The decision making now looks decidedly amateurish and has already been roundly derided by certain posters previously. PEN had little choice but to adopt low pH because of the NRC rulings against low pH but how did the commitment to proceed into development and production get approved and equally, how did they get funding? Our only hope is that the low pH process is finally approved. Some reports indicate that a 10 times greater extraction rate is achieved with low pH.
Whether the uranium mining opposition can get itself together sufficiently to stop PEN is a moot question and one with a higher probability that the answer is "no".
My conclusion - subject to successful trials, is that PEN will probably succeed with approval for low pH extraction but the approval process is likely to be drawn out during 2019 and some skirmishes are to be expected along the way.
(20min delay)
