old article but might be of interest

came across this - Bob adds a bit of flesh to his vision of Oban...


Mining company clears hurdle
24 July 2008

http://www.barrierminer.com.au/article.php?article=2265

South Australian mining company Curnamona Energy Limited is a step closer to developing its uranium prospect, 60 km north of Honeymoon, across the South Australian border from Broken Hill.

Curnamona, owned 45.4 per cent by Havilah Resources, has been advised by the Department of Primary Industries South Australia (PIRSA), that a Retention Lease has been approved for its Oban project.

Chairman of Havilah Resources and Curnamona Energy, Dr Bob Johnson, said that they were working towards being Australia’s next uranium producer.

“All the regulatory requirements take time,” he said.

Mr Johnson said the deposit was found about 18 months ago and the company has been working for a period of 15 months to satisfy the stringent documentary requirements and public consultation procedures necessary for the Retention Lease to be granted.

Dr Johnson said the project has received a lot of support. Once Curnamona’s wholly owned subsidiary, Oban Energy, has lodged a mining and rehabilitation program (MARP), then a proposed field leach trial would be followed up soon after by commercial low cost in situ leach (ISL) mining. The Oban deposit extends over three kms. “The process could take another six months before we can expand to a small plant.”

Meanwhile, the company is also open to other prospects which they come across and late last week were granted a new exploration licence by PIRSA at a site 20 km north of Oban, Yalkapo, which since the 1970s has shown indications of significant uranium deposits.

“As soon as we start going into production then we can start employing people,” Dr Johnson added.

“We aim to build additional resources which will keep us in operation for at least another 20 to 30 years.”

Dr Johnson said he did not anticipate any problems with obtaining a work force for the mine. He said employees were mainly recruited by word of mouth. “There are people out there looking for jobs – and we are good at keeping people.”

With a number of prospects in the area apart from uranium, including gold and copper, Dr Johnson said the mine sites shared resources and employees were multi disciplined.

Once Oban is operating commercially, Dr Johnson said the raw uranium would likely be shipped from Adelaide for enrichment overseas.

Dr Johnson said he received endless enquiries for uranium and predicted that with the anticipated growth of China there would be an increased demand for the product.

At this stage, he expected Havilah to start mining for copper, cobalt and sulphuric acid at its Mutooroo prospect in 2009 and Kalkaroo’s copper and gold mine should be operational in 2010.

Nearby Honeymoon, owned by Uranium One, is on hold as the company searches for a potential partner to assist in developing its Australian assets.