PLANT AND EQUIPMENT AND MINERAL PROPERTIES

The following is a summary of plant and equipment:



	December 31, 2018							December 31, 2017
	Cost		Accumulated Depreciation			Net Book Value		Cost		Accumulated Depreciation			Net Book Value
Plant and equipment
Nichols Ranch	$	29,210	$	(12,021	)	$	17,189	$	29,210	$	(9,971	)	$	19,239
Alta Mesa	13,656		(2,319		)	11,337		13,626		(1,388		)	12,238
Equipment and other	13,444		(12,127		)	1,317		13,367		(11,768		)	1,599
Plant and equipment total	$	56,310	$	(26,467	)	$	29,843	$	56,203	$	(23,127	)	$	33,076

The net book value for Nichols Ranch Project includes the value beyond proven and probable reserves ascribed to the processing plant, the Nichols Ranch wellfields and the Jane Dough project upon acquisition.

For the year ended December 31, 2018, the Company recorded $2.05 million (2017 - $3.17 million) of depreciation expense related to Nichols Ranch, which is included in the costs and expenses applicable to revenue in the Statement of the operations and comprehensive income for the year ended December 31, 2018.

Acquisition of Royalties

On August 14, 2018, the Company issued 1.10 million shares for consideration of $3.74 million to acquire a 6% – 8% sliding-scale gross proceeds production royalty on its Nichols Ranch, Hank and Doughstick properties (Doughstick is a part of the Company’s Jane Dough Project expansion area) and extinguished the royalty. This royalty also applied to the nearby Niles Ranch, Willow Creek, and Verna Ann properties, which are important pipeline uranium properties also owned by the Company. Acquisition of this royalty is expected to significantly decrease the Company’s cost of production at Nichols Ranch. As the Company does not have any reserves as defined by SEC Industry Guide 7, the Company has expensed this as development, permitting and land holding costs in the statement of operations and comprehensive loss.

The following is a summary of mineral properties:



	December 31, 2018		December 31, 2017
Mineral properties
Uranerz ISR properties (a)	$	25,974	$	25,974
Sheep Mountain	34,183		34,183
Roca Honda	22,095		22,095
Other (a)	1,287		1,287
Mineral properties total	$	83,539	$	83,539


a)	In the year ended December 31, 2018 the Company renewed all mineral leases and therefore did not record abandonment expense in the statement of operations. In the year ended December 31, 2017 the Company did not renew certain mineral leases and recorded abandonment expense of $0.29 million (December 31, 2016 – $1.04 million) in the statement of operations.