Peninsula Finds Stronger Lance Wellflows as Uranium Ramp-Up Enters Test Phase

HH17 Flow Rates Exceed Design Target

Peninsula Energy Limited (ASX:PEN) has found its clearest operational encouragement yet at the Lance uranium project in Wyoming, with Header House 17 operating at approximately 500 gallons per minute against a 450 GPM design basis. Average flow is about 15.6 GPM per operating well, compared with approximately 14 GPM in the original design.

The result is not yet a clean run-rate victory. HH17 remains in the early stages of acidification, and its natural flow of roughly 550 GPM is currently being capped at 500 GPM because of capacity constraints in the dissolved air flotation process used to manage solids. Peninsula has also introduced a “soft acidification” start, gradually increasing acid tenor to better control calcite dissolution and acid consumption.

HH15 Shows Improved Start-Up Behaviour

Header House 15 began production on 2 September and is running at about 350 GPM, with average operating well flows of roughly 12.5 GPM. That is below its 400 GPM design basis, but Peninsula describes the level as acceptable for effective operations.

More significant than the headline flow may be what has not happened so far: hydrogen peroxide addition began after acidification, with no gassing issues observed since production started. HH15 is also the first header house to use the modified lixiviant filtration system. Peninsula said it has not seen the flow-rate decline experienced during the start-up of earlier header houses in MU-4, although the company will need more operating data before that improvement can be treated as durable.

New Wells Challenge Earlier Lance Performance

Recent drilling in HH12, HH14 and HH16 has produced encouraging results. New HH14 wells have recorded flow rates above the current well average and original design basis, with uranium grades exceeding 100 milligrams per litre. In HH12, new wells are flowing above 14 GPM per operating well, compared with historical averages of about 6 GPM in that area.

Peninsula said the results provide initial evidence that formation permeability and mineralisation remain intact in the tested areas. Its assessment is that earlier low-flow and low-grade outcomes may have reflected wellfield design, localised completion conditions, operating strategies and acidification or oxidation methods rather than fundamental problems with the orebody or recovery process. That remains an assessment, not a settled conclusion: further drilling, wellfield development and operating data are required to test it.

Capital Deployment Shifts Toward Proven Areas

The company is temporarily taking MU-1 wells producing below 30 milligrams per litre offline, citing current sulfuric acid pricing and process-plant tail grades. The move is intended to concentrate reagent consumption and operating resources on higher-return production areas. Peninsula also plans further optimisation in MU-3, where wider-spaced well patterns and multi-horizon screening have proved ineffective.

That operational caution is now shaping FY2027 development. Near-term spending will favour existing and recently developed header houses, start-up procedures, filtration, acid management, peroxide control and targeted wellfield work, while non-essential capital expenditure and selected infrastructure sequencing are deferred. Peninsula expects to make a final investment decision on full-scale development of the next mine unit in the first half of calendar 2027, while maintaining production guidance of 500,000 to 600,000 pounds of U3O8 for the year.

Technical Oversight Strengthened

Peninsula has established a Technical Committee to support operational improvement and appointed Brian Pile as Acting Senior Vice President following site organisational changes. The company’s immediate challenge is to turn promising individual well and header-house results into consistent production economics, particularly while HH17 is constrained by processing capacity and HH15 remains below design flow.