Westwater Announces Reclamation Milestone at Vasquez
Westwater Resources Inc. (“Westwater,” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: WWR), an energy materials development company, today announced that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has certified that the third phase of site reclamation (plugging of production wells) is complete and released a surety bond posted by the Company in the amount of $208,657. This surety bond is collateralized with cash at a rate of 40%.
Christopher M. Jones, President and CEO of Westwater Resources, stated: “This important milestone involved the complete reclamation of 844 wells formerly used for production and water quality monitoring. Surface reclamation of the site and the waste disposal well are expected later this year. Reclamation completion and state approval of our work in Texas, like that at Vasquez and Rosita, are hallmarks of our commitment to being a sustainable and responsible part of the community.”
The Vasquez Project in Duval County, Texas, was acquired in 1990, with production initiated in the fall of 2004. After four years of uranium production, groundwater restoration was begun. The ground water restoration process involves repeated filtration of the water in the aquifer. This ensures that the groundwater meets state standards. Restoration was completed after ten years of work in 2014. TCEQ approved the company’s groundwater restoration efforts in 2017, and the well plugging phase was initiated at that time. This phase was completed that year.
Final reclamation efforts, including surface work and the reclamation of a waste disposal well at Vasquez, are expected to be complete later this year. Once that work is certified as complete by the TCEQ, we will follow up with a request for surety bond release on that phase, much as we have on previous phases.
This success follows a similar reclamation milestone achievement earlier this year at our Rosita property, also in Texas.
About Westwater Resources
WWR is focused on developing energy-related materials. The Company’s battery-materials projects include the Coosa Graphite Project — the most advanced natural flake graphite project in the contiguous United States — and the associated Coosa Graphite Mine located across 41,900 acres (~17,000 hectares) in east-central Alabama. In addition, the Company maintains lithium mineral properties in three prospective lithium brine basins in Nevada and Utah. Westwater’s uranium projects are located in Texas and New Mexico. In Texas, the Company has two licensed and currently idled uranium processing facilities and approximately 11,000 acres (~4,400 hectares) of prospective in-situ recovery uranium projects. In New Mexico, the Company controls mineral rights encompassing approximately 188,700 acres (~76,000 hectares) in the prolific Grants Mineral Belt, which is one of the largest concentrations of sandstone-hosted uranium deposits in the world. Incorporated in 1977 as Uranium Resources, Inc., Westwater also owns an extensive uranium information database of historic drill hole logs, assay certificates, maps and technical reports for the western United States. For more information, visit www.westwaterresources.net.
Cautionary Statement
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are identified by words such as “expects,” “estimates,” “projects,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” and other similar words. All statements addressing events or developments that WWR expects or anticipates will occur in the future, including but not limited to statements relating to future reclamation work, are forward-looking statements. Because they are forward-looking, they should be evaluated in light of important risk factors and uncertainties. These risk factors and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, (a) the availability of capital to the Company and the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern; (b) the availability of the Company to continue to satisfy the listing requirements of the Nasdaq Capital Market; (c) spot price and long-term contract price of graphite, lithium, vanadium and uranium; (d) the ability of the Company to enter into and successfully close acquisitions, dispositions or other material transactions; (e) government regulation of the mining industry and the nuclear power industry in the United States; (f) operating conditions at the Company’s projects; (g) the world-wide supply and demand of graphite, vanadium, lithium and uranium; (h) weather conditions; (i) unanticipated geological, processing, regulatory and legal or other problems the Company may encounter; (j) the results of the Company’s exploration activities, and the possibility that future exploration results may be materially less promising than initial exploration result; (k) any graphite, vanadium, lithium or uranium discoveries not being in high enough concentration to make it economic to extract the metals; (l) currently pending or new litigation or arbitration; (m) the Company’s ability to maintain and timely receive mining and other permits from regulatory agencies; and (n) other factors which are more fully described in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should any of the Company’s underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those currently anticipated. In addition, undue reliance should not be placed on the Company’s forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any obligation to update or publicly announce any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements contained in this news release. The results of the initial optimization study are preliminary in nature and subject to revision following WWR’s further analysis of the Coosa Graphite Project.
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Contact
Westwater Resources Contact:
Christopher M. Jones, President & CEO
Phone: 303.531.0480
Jeff Vigil, VP Finance & CFO
Phone: 303.531.0481
Email: Info@WestwaterResources.net
Investor Relations Contact:
Michael Porter
Porter, LeVay and Rose
Phone: 212.564.4700
Email: Westwater@plrinvest.com