Consolidated Uranium Incorporated (CU) is based in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. It has announced the start of a set of comprehensive work programs. One such program involves the reopening of the underground workings of its Tony M uranium mine. It has been fifteen years since the mine last produced uranium. CU also plans to investigate the vanadium potential of the underground Tony M mine.
     The Tony M mine is fully developed and permitted. It produced almost one million pounds of U3O8 during two different periods of operation from 1979-1984 and from 2007-20008. The Tony M is one of three past-producing uranium mines in Utah owned by CU.
     Historically, it had been thought that there was no significant vanadium in the mine. However, during the process of completing a NI 43-101 technical report on the project, an inverse relationship between uranium and vanadium mineralization was discovered. This resulted in a recommendation by SLR International Corporation, which wrote the technical report, to reopen the underground for a sampling program as well as carrying out a drilling program.
     Martin Tunney is the President and COO of CU. He said, “We view the reopening of the underground as a first step in the restart of the Tony M Mine. Any vanadium mineralization of economic value would allow us to reach that goal that much faster.”
     The NI 43-101 technical report for the Tony M is dated September 9, 2022. It estimates indicated mineral resources of six million six hundred thousand pounds of U3O8 and inferred resources of two million two hundred thousand pounds. The 2023 drilling program will include as many as fifty-nine vertical drill holes, totaling about thirty-eight thousand feet across the deposit. The underground sampling programs are designed to collect detailed information on vanadium mineralization with the ultimate goal of calculating a vanadium mineral resource. It might also allow for some of the current estimated mineral resources to be converted from the inferred to the indicated category.
     Phil Williams is the Chairman and CEO of CU. He said, “With uranium market fundamentals showing significant strength and the unquestionable need and political support for domestic US uranium production, we believe advancing the Tony M project toward a near term production decision is the correct course of action. The programs announced today will not only provide detailed information to guide ultimate mining of the Tony M resource, by potentially upgrading mineral resources into the indicated category and allowing us to evaluate the conditions of the extensive underground workings, but, if successful, could add meaningful value to the deposit through the possible addition of vanadium resources not previously evaluated.”
    The Tony M, the Daneros and the Rim mines were part of a portfolio of permitted, past-producing conventional uranium and vanadium mines in Utah and Colorado which CU acquired from Energy Fuels Incorporated in 2021.
    Virginia Energy Resources (VER) owns the Coles Hill mine which is the biggest underdeveloped uranium project in the U.S. CU last year agreed to buy VER in a transaction worth about thirty-two million dollars.  CU also has past-producing and development projects Argentina, Australia and Canada.

Ambient office = 70 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 113 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Blueberry from Central Market = 90 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 77 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office = 73 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 118 nanosieverts per hour

Bannana from Central Market = 165 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 104 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 129 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 73 nanosieverts per hour

Dover Sole from Central = 115 nanosieverts per hour

     Alberto Núñez Feijóo is the leader of Partido Popular in Spain. He recently made a commitment to extend the lifespan of the country’s seven nuclear power plants. Teresa Ribera is the Spanish Ecological Transition Minister. She said last Tuesday that Feijóo commitment is a political slogan and a tricky message. She went on to say, “It is not enough with a slogan it is not enough to say: ‘I extend’, at whose expense, who pays, the State, the consumers? Because at the end of the day that is the implicit message.”
     On last Monday, Feijóo proposed that, if the PP wins the general election on the 23rd of July, the planned dismantling of the seven Spanish nuclear power plants will be canceled and their lifespans extended.
     In the view of Ribera, Feijóo’s proposal is a political tactic marked by the upcoming election campaign which begins next week.
     Pedro Sánchez is the current Spanish Prime Minister. He asked the PP leader who would pay the enormous priced that would be involved in implementing Feijóo proposal. Sanchez said in a recent interview, “The question the PP is not answering is: Who will pay for it: the citizens or the State?” Because if you look at the energy sector in the long term, the cost of producing electricity by nuclear power is much more expensive than renewables. They will have to explain who will pay.”
     The Socialist Prime Minister recalled that Minister Ribera agreed in 2019 with the companies that own the Spanish nuclear power plants on a schedule for closure until 2025. He regretted that Feijóo did not make “any proposal on energy linked to the ecological transition”.
     The plan approved by the Socialist government in 2019 states that the closure of the seven Spanish nuclear power plants would take place in several stages. It will run from 2027 until 2035 by which time all the plants would be shut down. The closure plan for the nuclear power plants would follow the schedule of the Almaraz I in 2027, the Almarex II in 2028, the Ascó I and Cofrentes in 2030, the Ascó II in 2032 and the Vandellós II and Trillo in 2035. 
     Ribera is number 2 on the PSOE’s list for Madrid for the July 23rd general election. She said that the promise made by Feijóo is a “trick message”. Ribera recalled that it was the nuclear companies that managed the nuclear power plants themselves that “at the time reached an agreement to (set) a timetable for closure (until 2035)”. The Spanish government is willing to invest in nuclear safety but not to extend by a few years the lifespan of the nuclear plants.
     Ribera said, “We are not prepared to invest large sums of money for something that has a limited lifespan, which, if it is exceeded in time, requires a much larger amount than we are prepared to maintain.” On the other hand, she assured that “what is most appropriate for this country, with affordable, stable, predictable (energy) prices for consumers, but also with returns for investors, are renewable (energy) solutions”.
     Ribera concluded that “Spain is rich in renewable (energy) alternatives, and it is rich in human capital, in will, in companies and societies that know how to take advantage of the opportunities for innovation, employment and industry linked to renewables. We have become a very important focus of attraction for investment.”

Ambient office = 81 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 83 nanosieverts per hour

Tomato from Central Market = 52 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 81 nanosieverts per hour