ceo in china past week, page-8

From resourceinvestor.com

By Charlotte Mathews
23 May 2007 at 09:48 AM GMT-04:00


JOHANNESBURG (Business Day) -- Interest in southern Africa’s uranium deposits has quickened, with China reported to be taking an interest in developing a South African and Namibian uranium mining company, while resources giant Rio Tinto said this week it was looking at ways to expand its Rossing uranium mine.

According to a Rio Tinto presentation on its energy strategy this week, South Africa is the world’s 10th-largest uranium supplier, and Namibia the sixth-largest. The biggest uranium producer is Cameco, followed by Rio Tinto.

Rio said secondary supplies of uranium — mainly scrap from nuclear disarmament — were expected to decrease, while supply from mines would increase, but supply was expected to be tight until 2012 or even beyond.

This month the spot price of uranium hit a new high of $120/pound.

Shares in Uramin, a uranium explorer headquartered in Johannesburg and listed on London’s AIM...

China is seeking to secure supplies of uranium as it plans to generate 4% of power from nuclear power stations by 2020 compared with 2.3% now. This would not be the first Chinese investment in South Africa. China's Larry Yung has taken a 1.13% stake in Anglo American; amancor Chrome and Sinosteel have a joint venture in a ferrochrome mine and smelter; and Zijin Mining has bought a 29.9% stake in platinum miner Ridge.