Reefton Must Convince The Market That It Really Has A Uranium Discovery In Namibia.
Just a single day after Australian listed Reefton Mining announced that it had hit uranium on its Erongo polymetallic project in Namibia its managing director, Vladimir Nikolaenko, resigned. Funny that. Apparently he has other business commitments that he has to attend to and the board has expressed its ‘gratitude for his many long years of service to the company’. Usually managing directors leave when things are going badly and they can see no way to improve them. Here the company appears to have a new lease of life as a uranium miner, or does it?
The actual statement from the company at the end of March was headed “Uranium Samples Recovered at Erongo Project, Namibia”. Little doubt about that then as the technical director Garry Hemming is described as an exploration geologist with over 26 years of experience in various commodities, geological environments and countries. He has consulted on a range of projects throughout the Australia, the Philippines and Namibia but his particular expertise appears to be in diamonds. There is certainly little doubt that he knows more about geology than Simon Gilbert, the chief executive, who is a metallurgical engineer with experience of base metals, gold and mineral sands projects. The other two directors would not be able to contribute much as the chairman is an accountant and Anthony Ogilvie Thompson’s only claim to fame seems to be that he is the son of his father.
The statement from Reefton claimed that carnotite (uranium mineral) had been identified at surface as exploration utilising ground radiometrics, soil geochemistry and drilling progressed. It was not long, however, before The Namibian newspaper started to query it. John Grobler suggested that the specific deposit might be thorium which is used in some fluorescent lighting fixtures. He was supported by a geologist in Cape Town, Dr Nick Stevens, who wrote his doctorate on the geology of the very area where Reefton says it has found uranium. “I would be very, very sceptical of an announcement of a major uranium find there” he said.
Then there was Professor John Moore of the Rhodes University geology department who apparently said that he would be very surprised if real and valuable amounts of uranium were to be found on the Hakseen farm , outside Utakos. Moore reckoned that Hakseen had the wrong type of rock for a genuine uranium deposit and said that it was a legend among geology students who visit the area to study the differences between real and false indications of uranium despite. He agreed that thorium was a close relative of uranium and during its radioactive decay produced small amounts of uranium, but not in commercial amounts.
The conclusion seems to be that a strong radioactive signal does not necessarily mean much. Back to Nick Stevens who points out that it is known to be a granite -based deposit and therefore likely to be a monozite. This is a rare earth phosphate normally associated with heavy beach sands, but it just happens to give out a radioactive signal. Modern Geiger counters give out different signals for thorium, potassium and uranium, so it should be comparatively easy to differentiate between them. Most geologists, however, never use one in a lifetime of exploration.
Everyone appreciates that there are exceptions to most rules in geology and perhaps Reefton has stumbled on one. In its support a Minesite correspondent writes, “I have just returned from Namibia. During this trip I visited the Trekkopje Uranium Deposit on the Farm Klein Trekkopje. At that time I noticed a RC rig, drilling on the adjacent farm which is Hakskeen 89. I talked to the driller and he informed me that he was working for Reefton Mining and that they were looking for uranium. This came as no surprise to me as I was aware that in 1978 C.H.Johnston working for General Mining and Finance Corp had filed an assessment report showing that uranium in the form of carnotite had been found on the farm and that a preliminary resource of some 361,250 tonnes of U3O8 at 331 gm/t had been estimated.
This statement has also been published in a report written by the government of Namibia entitled "The Mineral Resources of Namibia" the section of this report dealing with uranium and in particular the section on the carnotite at Hakskeen can be found in section 4.2.2.2.3 on page 7.1 - 43. I hope that this helps you as it seems that Reefton has been the victim of a terrible mistake. I think the problem lies with the name that they choose for their project. They used the name Erongo Project. People obviously think that they are referring to the Erongo Mountains that are some 80 kms away from the farm Hakskeen.”
Nothing is ever as clear as it first appears and maybe the uranium claim will be substantiated by Dr Christian Schlag, a uranium specialist, who has been retained by Reefton to give a definitive yea or nay. All we can do is wait and see.
RTM Price at posting:
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