govt wants stake in new uranium mine

http://www.newera.com.na/article.php?articleid=7894

Govt wants stake in new uranium mine - by Desie Heita

29 October 2009

OTAVI – Another uranium mine is on the cards and Government wants to be a co-owner of the mine, through the State-owned mining company Epangelo Mining.

Swakop Uranium Mine sits on the largest and high-grade deposit of uranium – larger than that of Rössing Uranium Mine.

The mine is located south of Rössing Uranium Mine and is owned 40 percent by Kalahari Minerals, a company dually listed on the Canadian and Australian stock exchanges. Rio Tinto, which also owns Rössing Uranium, holds 15 percent shareholding.

The owners intend dual listing both the parent company, Kalahari Minerals, as well as the company under whose name Swakop Uranium Mine is registered, Extract Uranium, on the Namibian Stock Exchange.

Future intentions are to list Swakop Uranium Mine on the Namibia Stock Exchange as well. Senior executives of Kalahari Minerals and Swakop Uranium Mine paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Nahas Angula this week to give a progress update at the mine.

“This is a prime uranium deposit, much bigger and higher grade than Rössing Uranium’s deposits,” says the chairman of Extract Uranium, Steven Galloway. Extract Uranium is the licence holder of Swakop Uranium Mine.

Galloway, and Mark Hohnen, the chairman of Kalahari Minerals, say they intend to apply for a mining licence by the middle of next year and start with the construction of the mine as soon as possible.

Extract Uranium has roped in the services of seasoned miner, Norman Green, the man who brought Skorpion Zinc Mine into production. Green, who has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Swakop Uranium Mine, will lay the foundation needed to bring Swakop Uranium Mine into production within the next four years.

In the meantime, Galloway says they have received communication from the Minister of Mines and Energy, Erkki Nghimtina, “registering interest of Epangelo Mining as Government’s participation” in Swakop Uranium Mine.

“We would want to engage [the minister] as soon as possible,” says Galloway. Once in production Swakop Uranium Mine will look at the possibility of going beyond exporting yellow cake towards value addition. This they intend to do in conjunction with other mines.

“We are definitely looking at some of the steps of adding little value,” says Galloway.

The Prime Minister appealed to the mine executive to use environmentally friendly mining methods to avoid creating another open pit in the sensitive Namib-Naukluft Park.

Galloway says they will do their best “to return the mined area to normality and mine with minimal environmental impact”.

Meanwhile, Kalahari Minerals’ other mining interests do look promising. Kalahari Minerals is prospecting for copper in Witvlei and Hohnen says drilling results are encouraging. However, additional drilling has to take place to determine the actual deposits. Kalahari also intends to buy out the old gold mine in the Oshikoto Region. Other interests are to acquire some of Weatherly’s copper mine assets, although Hohnen says the Chinese have beat them to this.