RECLAMATION DEPOSITS

12 Months Ended

Jul. 31, 2015

RECLAMATION DEPOSITS [Text Block]

NOTE 6: RECLAMATION DEPOSITS

Reclamation deposits include interest and non-interest bearing deposits issued in the States of Arizona, Texas and Wyoming relating to exploration, pre-extraction, extraction and reclamation activities in the respective states. Reclamation deposits consisted of the following:

		July 31, 2015		July 31, 2014
Palangana Mine	$	1,102,981	$	3,689,666
Hobson Processing Facility		587,228		1,957,476
Arizona		15,000		15,000
Wyoming		816		815
		1,706,025		5,662,957
Interest		-		15,672
	$	1,706,025	$	5,678,629

During Fiscal 2015, the Company secured $5.6 million of surety bonds, subject to a 2% annual premium on the face value, as an alternate source of financial assurance for its future remediation and decommissioning activities at the Palangana Mine and Hobson Processing Facility. These surety bonds replaced an equivalent amount of reclamation deposits funded entirely through cash payments by the Company, providing for the release of $3.9 million in cash to the Company. The remaining $1.7 million, representing 30% of the face value of the surety bonds and comprised of $1.1 million relating to the Palangana Mine and $0.6 million relating to the Hobson Processing Facility, is held as restricted cash for collateral purposes as required by the surety.

In Fiscal 2014, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, with concurrence from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, approved the Company’s application for release of the Mt. Lucas site to unrestricted use, marking the successful completion of the Mt. Lucas reclamation and resulting in the release of all related reclamation deposits.