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Premier American Uranium: Cebolleta Drill Program Complete; Samples Sent for Testing, Updated PEA in 2027

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As announced earlier today (July 13), Premier American Uranium (PUR) announced the successful completion of a drill program at the Cebolleta Uranium Project, located in New Mexico. The drill program commenced in May and represents a meaningful step focused on advancing metallurgical optimization and project economics. Budgeted at $1.1M, the related work is expected to both update and optimize the recently released (October 2025) Cebolleta Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). Incorporating results from the currently on-going program, an updated PEA is expected to be completed in 2027.  



  


2026 CEBOLLETA WORK PROGRAM; DRILLING NOW COMPLETE, SAMPLING NEXT

 

The company announced that 6,030ft of PQ-core drilling has now been completed at the Cebolleta Project. Core drilling occurred at four locations targeting mineralization representative of the underground mining portion of the company’s current MRE. Mineralized core was collected from a total of 18 vertical holes (between 4 to 6 per location). Collectively, 77 core samples (encompassing both underground and open pit samples) were sent to a lab in Golden, Colorado for metallurgical lab work. The selection of core samples was guided by handheld scintillometer readings in a sterile background combined with downhole gamma results, utilizing a cutoff grade of 0.06% eU3O8, the underground mining cut-off grade used in the 2025 PEA. The recovered material provided representative samples for the planned metallurgical test program.

 

As initially announced this spring, the planned Cebolleta work program was focused on bulk sampling, targeted drilling, and comprehensive metallurgical testing aimed at optimizing the heap leach recovery assumptions of the 2025 PEA. As per metallurgical testing, the program will include mineralogical characterization, bottle roll recovery testing, and long-term column leach tests to simulate heap leaching. Additionally, column leach tests will examine the efficacy of multiple oxidants, lixiviants, and application rates with the goal of optimizing heap-leach uranium recovery and informing key assumptions for future economic studies. Results are expected to trickle out in approximately 6-8 weeks for the bottle roll tests. Approximately 40 weeks will be needed until receipt of the column leach testing results.   


CEBOLLETA 2025 PEA HIGHLIGHTS STRONG LEVERAGE TO LT URANIUM PRICING

 

The October 2025 released PEA illustrated a long life of mine spanning 13 years and averaging the production of 1.4M lbs U3O8 per year. Specifically, the PEA contemplated a two-year underground pre-production period and a 13-year active mine life comprised of underground and open pit mining across seven mining zones (St. Anthony, Willie P, and Areas I, II, III, IV, and V). The primary mining methods expected to be employed at Cebolleta will be open pit (St. Anthony Area) and room and pillar (Areas I, II, III, IV, V and Willie P, St. Anthony North and South Zones).



According to the PEA, the underground mining areas will be accessed by a 3,500-ft long adit decline starting near the heap pad location for Area III, with a 2,500-ft long extension of this decline to access Area II. There will be a second access to the underground mining at Area I and Willie P, which will be a 930-ft long adit starting at a location in the northwest corner of the St. Anthony open pit. These two underground accesses will be connected by a 3,800-ft long drift. A minimum mining thickness of six feet was applied to two-foot-thick mining blocks. Over the LOM, mining is expected to supply total process feed of 10.46 Mst with an average head grade of 0.11% eU3O8. Mining rates are anticipated to be 1,079 short tons per day (stpd) from underground and 1,982 stpd from open pit operations.

 

 

CEBOLLETA PEA ECONOMICS: HIGHLY LEVERAGED TO PRICE & RECOVERIES

 

Factoring in total capital of $206M (development capital, sustaining capital and reclamation) and an average operating cost of $41.60 per LOM, using a $90.00 per lb LT uranium price deck, the PEA calculated an after-tax NPV8% of $83.8M and an after-tax IRR of 17.70%.



Note that the Project is very leveraged to the underlying LT uranium price - the Project after-tax NPV8% increases by +83% when going from $90 per lb to $100 per lb LT. The PEA also set the framework with various recommendations which could potentially increase the Project returns (the execution of advanced metallurgical work, leach testing and confirmation drilling, among others). Metallurgical recovery was previously identified as one of the key sensitivities for the overall project value. Specifically, sensitivity analysis in the 2025 PEA indicated that increasing recovery to 90% could increase base-case after-tax project NAV8% by approximately 90%, from $84M to $159M. As per our own current estimates, we remain on the more conservative side with a modeled $43.00 per lb in average LOM operating costs while also following a similar development schedule.



CEBOLLETA: ONE OF THE LARGEST US UNDEVELOPPED URANIUM DEPOSITS


An updated MRE (effective date May 14, 2025) released in conjunction with the PEA also confirmed Cebolleta as one of the largest undeveloped uranium deposits located within the United States. Given an Indicated mineral resource of 20.3M lbs eU3O8 along with an Inferred resource estimate of 7.0M lbs eU3O8, the Project ranks near the upper end in terms of global resource, relative to other domestic deposits.



VALUATION & CONCLUSION

 

The goal of the Cebolleta work program is ultimately to target refinements to the process assumptions as outlined in the 2025 PEA. At an estimated cost of $1.1M, the sampling program and the metallurgical test program have been designed to investigate and maximize the metallurgical recovery of uranium from the heap leach process. Recall that metallurgical recovery was previously identified in the PEA as a key sensitivity for the overall project value. Initial results from the metallurgical testing are expected in approximately 6-8 weeks while an updated PEA is envisioned for next year. We maintain our $100 per lb LT, 0.65x NPV8% derived valuation for Cebolleta. This results in a price objective of C$1.55 per share. Shares of Premier American Uranium currently trade at a P/NAV of 0.23x, or given an upsized financing earlier this year, at ~0.25x cash/mcap.




 
 
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