Uranium price hopes “In terms of the uranium price, I think any...

Uranium price hopes


“In terms of the uranium price, I think any metal that is part of the low- or zero-carbon emission base is going to be in short supply over 10 or 15 years,” said Froneman.

“There is such a shortage of these green metals. I predict very significant price rises for lithium and nickel, and uranium is part of those green metals. We are being very conservative talking $60 per pound ($/lb),” he added.

the uranium price was at its highest level since 2014 ($40.25/lb) owing to aggressive purchasing by Canadian investor, Sprott Inc which intended to corner the phyiscal market for uranium.

Said Froneman: “If you can produce the greenest uranium – and of course tailings retreatment is going to be very much part of that – you have a real edge. We are looking forward over the medium term to much higher uranium prices.”

Gold/Uranium combination
In terms of producing uranium with additional gold resources, Froneman said: “Absolutely, it can be done together”.

He referred to the acquisition of JSE-listed gold exploration company, Wits Gold by Sibanye-Stillwater forerunner, Sibanye Gold in 2013. Wits Gold owns the Bloemhoek and the De Bron Merriespruit gold prospects situated in the southern Free State.

These projects were the type that “… could come to fruition” especially given the development of technology – a view endorsed by Sibanye-Stillwater’s long-time adviser Dennis Tucker who is now in charge of the group’s uranium strategy.

“The Free State uranium assets are key,” said Tucker. “They have been mined before; they are shallow; there are some really exquisite, new-age, autonomous mechanisms out there that will us to access those orebodies rapidly,” he said.

The Beisa project was “ready to roll”, said Tucker who added that Sibanye-Stillwater was studying a cost analysis of the companies, and of Beatrix itself to see if up to three projects could be added on to the mine.

In the southern Free State mining right there were “a couple of really interesting gold projects that will add value to company under a different cost structure. There is serious life in the Free State and it is our intention to fully unlock this and take it to another level,” said Tucker.

The uranium price was in “a completely different space”, he said.

“It’s green energy now,” he said of uranium. “It’s not the old energy that everyone was afraid of. It’s going to become the baseload of the planet and on the back of that we will see some surprising price moves.”