Anfield Energy advances US uranium strategy as Velvet-Wood rehabilitation reaches new milestone

Anfield Energy Inc. has completed the first underground blast at its Velvet-Wood uranium and vanadium project in nearly 40 years, marking a tangible advance in the company’s effort to bring the Utah mine back toward production. The company has rehabilitated the first 700 feet of the historic decline while installing ground support, ventilation, utilities and other infrastructure needed to reopen underground workings. Construction of a water treatment plant and installation of the mine’s dewatering pump are also nearing completion, positioning Anfield Energy for the next stage of rehabilitation once testing is finished. The milestone does not mean commercial uranium production is imminent, but it provides investors with measurable evidence that Velvet-Wood is progressing beyond permitting and surface preparation into physical underground development.

The latest development is particularly relevant because Velvet-Wood is intended to become one of the first feed sources for Anfield Energy’s broader hub-and-spoke production strategy centered on the Shootaring Canyon Mill. That strategy links several uranium and vanadium deposits in Utah and Colorado to a centralized processing facility, potentially allowing the company to spread mill infrastructure costs across multiple mines rather than develop separate processing facilities for each asset.

Why Anfield Energy’s first Velvet-Wood underground blast is more than a symbolic milestone

The August 27 blast followed receipt of a blasting permit from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives earlier this summer. Velvet-Wood last produced in 1984, making the reopening of its underground decline an important transition from a historical uranium asset toward an actively rehabilitated development project.

Anfield Energy said rehabilitation has already covered the first 700 feet of the decline. Work has included rock bolts and wire mesh for ground support, road construction, removal of waste material, surveying and installation of mine ventilation and utilities. A primary surface ventilation fan, ducting, air compressor, water lines, electrical infrastructure and communications systems have also been installed.

Those activities are less headline-grabbing than a major resource discovery, but they can be more consequential at this stage of a mine restart. Investors in development-stage mining companies ultimately need to see engineering and permitting milestones translate into physical infrastructure, because that is where execution risk becomes easier to measure.

The next step is dewatering. Anfield Energy said construction of the water treatment plant and installation of the dewatering pump are nearly complete, with testing and sampling expected to begin within weeks. Once construction is finished, the company plans a 60-day testing and reporting period before beginning dewatering of the historical underground workings.

Management currently expects the remaining portion of the decline to require roughly three weeks of active dewatering, followed by approximately two to three months to dewater the existing underground workings. Those timelines remain projections rather than guarantees, but they create a relatively clear sequence of milestones that investors can use to judge whether Velvet-Wood remains on schedule.

Velvet-Wood is only one piece of Anfield Energy’s larger hub-and-spoke uranium strategy

The significance of Velvet-Wood becomes clearer when viewed alongside the Shootaring Canyon Mill and Anfield Energy’s other uranium and vanadium assets. The company’s updated preliminary economic assessment combines Velvet-Wood, the Slick Rock project in Colorado and six West Slope mines into a single production framework designed to provide feed to Shootaring Canyon.

Under the June 2026 preliminary economic assessment, combined mine feed would support an increased Shootaring Canyon processing capacity of approximately 1,000 tons per day. The study estimated average annual production of roughly 1.3 million pounds of uranium and 6.4 million pounds of vanadium over a 15-year mine life, with peak production reaching approximately 1.9 million pounds of uranium and 7.8 million pounds of vanadium.

The economics outlined by the company are substantial, although they depend heavily on commodity-price assumptions and remain preliminary. Using uranium at US$100 per pound and vanadium at US$9 per pound, the assessment calculated a pre-tax net present value at an 8% discount rate of approximately US$606 million and a pre-tax internal rate of return of 106%. The post-tax net present value was estimated at approximately US$533 million with an internal rate of return of 97%.

Those numbers should not be interpreted as guaranteed project returns. The assessment itself highlights considerable sensitivity to commodity prices, with a 10% equal movement in uranium and vanadium assumptions changing estimated pre-tax net present value by approximately US$136 million. That commodity-price sensitivity is particularly important for investors considering a smaller development-stage producer whose future cash flows would remain closely tied to uranium market conditions.

Capital requirements are another important consideration. The preliminary economic assessment estimated approximately US$97 million of spending during the 12-month pre-production period, including permitting, mine development, equipment, Shootaring Canyon refurbishment, a new vanadium circuit and tailings infrastructure. Another approximately US$20 million of mine-related spending is contemplated during the initial production year, with total life-of-mine capital estimated at roughly US$173 million.

Shootaring Canyon mill readiness remains central to whether the production model can work

Rehabilitating Velvet-Wood solves only one part of the execution equation because Anfield Energy’s strategy ultimately depends on having a processing destination for material produced from its mines. Shootaring Canyon therefore remains arguably the most important infrastructure asset in the company’s portfolio.

The mill was originally constructed and operated in the early 1980s and has remained under care and maintenance rather than being fully decommissioned. Anfield Energy has been working on engineering and refurbishment planning while pursuing the regulatory changes needed to return the facility to operational status.

Earlier this year, the company reported completing additional monitoring wells required as part of the radioactive materials license renewal process. Anfield Energy also began preparatory refurbishment work, including removing existing leach tanks so the processing facility can eventually undergo wider upgrades.

The updated preliminary economic assessment estimates approximately US$80.1 million of mill-related capital expenditures, including contingencies. That total includes roughly US$31.1 million for general upgrades, US$34.6 million for a modern vanadium circuit and US$14.4 million for upgrades to the tailings management facility.

That makes coordination important. Advancing Velvet-Wood rapidly without comparable progress at Shootaring Canyon could leave mined material waiting for processing capacity, while completing the mill without sufficient mine feed would create the opposite problem. The investment case therefore depends less on any one construction announcement and more on whether the company can advance the mine and processing hub on compatible timelines.

Anfield Energy stock sentiment shows investors remain cautious despite stronger August momentum

Anfield Energy shares have experienced considerable volatility even as operational activity has accelerated. Nasdaq-listed shares closed at US$4.66 on August 26 after gaining more than 8% on August 25 but giving back approximately 2.1% in the following session. Earlier in August, the shares traded below US$4, meaning the stock has recovered materially from its early-month levels even while remaining far below its 52-week high.

During August 27 trading, Anfield Energy shares were around US$4.52 after reaching an intraday high near US$4.83. That represented a decline of roughly 3% from the previous US$4.66 close, suggesting the historic Velvet-Wood milestone had not generated an immediate sustained breakout in the shares. The stock’s 52-week range of approximately US$3.66 to US$12.49 further illustrates how sharply investor expectations around the company have fluctuated.

The restrained reaction is understandable because financing remains an important part of the risk profile. Anfield Energy completed a public equity financing at the end of July after initially pricing approximately 1.49 million shares at US$4 each for US$6 million of gross proceeds. The offering ultimately closed with approximately US$6.9 million in gross proceeds after the underwriters exercised their additional allotment option. Proceeds were earmarked for projects including Velvet-Wood, Slick Rock, the Paradox Complex and Shootaring Canyon, alongside working capital and general corporate purposes.

That financing strengthens near-term liquidity but also demonstrates the capital demands facing the company. Development-stage uranium producers typically need to balance construction spending with dilution risk until operations generate meaningful cash flow. Anfield Energy’s ability to advance multiple assets while controlling capital requirements will therefore remain an important factor influencing sentiment.

The broader August recovery in the stock indicates investors are giving some credit to execution progress, but the market has not treated every development milestone as sufficient evidence that production risk has disappeared. That arguably represents a reasonable stance given the amount of rehabilitation, dewatering, mill refurbishment and financing activity still required.

What investors should watch as Anfield Energy pushes Velvet-Wood closer to production

The first underground blast changes the character of the Velvet-Wood story because it provides visible evidence that Anfield Energy has moved into underground rehabilitation after completing earlier surface work. The company now has a defined near-term sequence involving completion and testing of the water treatment system, dewatering of the decline and historical workings, further underground rehabilitation and eventual preparation for mining.

Execution against those milestones should matter more than the symbolism of the first blast itself. Delays in water treatment, unexpected underground conditions, higher rehabilitation costs or slower Shootaring Canyon licensing and refurbishment could all affect the timetable. Conversely, successful dewatering followed by continued mine rehabilitation would increasingly validate the company’s strategy.

The updated preliminary economic assessment provides a potentially attractive economic framework, but its assumptions also expose the project to uranium and vanadium pricing, development costs and financing conditions. Investors should therefore distinguish between promising modeled economics and cash flows that can only emerge after the mines and mill are operating.

Anfield Energy has nevertheless reached a meaningful point in the transition from development planning to physical execution. Velvet-Wood had not seen an underground blast for nearly four decades, and the company has now begun reopening the infrastructure needed to access those workings. If Anfield Energy can maintain that momentum while advancing Shootaring Canyon in parallel, the next several operational milestones could prove substantially more important to valuation than another resource update.

Key takeaways from Anfield Energy’s Velvet-Wood mine restart and uranium production strategy

• Anfield Energy has completed the first underground blast at Velvet-Wood in nearly 40 years as rehabilitation of the Utah uranium and vanadium mine advances.
• Approximately 700 feet of the historic decline has already been rehabilitated, with ground support, ventilation, utilities and communications infrastructure installed.
• Construction of the water treatment plant and installation of the dewatering pump are nearing completion ahead of a planned testing and reporting period.
• Anfield Energy expects active dewatering of the remaining decline to take about three weeks, followed by approximately two to three months for the historic underground workings.
• Velvet-Wood is intended to feed the Shootaring Canyon Mill as part of a wider hub-and-spoke strategy incorporating multiple uranium and vanadium mines.
• The company’s updated preliminary economic assessment estimates average annual production of approximately 1.3 million pounds of uranium and 6.4 million pounds of vanadium over 15 years.
• The preliminary economic assessment calculated a US$606 million pre-tax net present value and 106% pre-tax internal rate of return, although those economics rely on uranium and vanadium price assumptions.
• Anfield Energy’s strategy still requires substantial capital, including an estimated US$97 million during the 12-month pre-production period contemplated by the preliminary economic assessment.
• Nasdaq-listed Anfield Energy shares were trading near US$4.52 on August 27, reflecting continued volatility despite stronger operational momentum during August.
• The next major indicators will be successful dewatering at Velvet-Wood, continued underground rehabilitation and parallel progress toward bringing the Shootaring Canyon Mill back into operation.