Presidential ceremony as Malawi mine approaches restart

"We were honoured to welcome His Excellency, Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, President of the Republic of Malawi, to preside over the official inauguration of the commissioning and restart of the Kayelekera Uranium Mine," Lotus Managing Director Greg Bittar said. "His Excellency, the Government of Malawi, the traditional authorities of regions around Kayelekera and the local communities, have all been pivotal in this achievement. We continue to make terrific progress in commissioning the plant and increasing mill throughput, and we are on track to achieve steady state 200,000 lbs per month - 2.4M lbs per annum - production in early CY2026."

_{Ore stockpiles at Kayelekera (Image: Lotus Resources)}

Australian-based Lotus Resources acquired Kayelekera from Paladin Energy in 2020. The mine has produced nearly 11 million pounds U3O8 (around 4,200 tU) between 2009 to 2014, but had been on care and maintenance since then. A restart study conducted by the company in 2022 determined an ore reserve of 23 million pounds U3O8.

Earlier this month, the company announced it had started processing high grade ore at Kayelekera as part of the final commissioning of the precipitation, drying, and packaging circuits, with the first uranium product expected this quarter. Stockpiled ore is being used to restart production until mining commences: the stockpile of around 300,000 tonnes represents about three months of mill feed, the company said. It anticipates switching to freshly mined ore in the last quarter of this year.

Today, the company said around 1,500 kg of uranium has been eluted, ready for precipitation, with mill feed grades of initial ore sourced from stockpiles "comfortably" meeting expectations: "With these milestones achieved, commissioning focus is now on finalising the automation of the drying and packaging circuit, which will then allow the production of the first yellowcake."