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More big uranium moves

Robin Bromby | May 08, 2009

Article from: The Australian
SOME people in Alice Springs are very upset at the news that drilling for uranium has just begun 25km out of town, and have been protesting to make their views known.

Hard cheese for them (and their counterparts who have fought uranium exploration near the Grand Canyon in the US). Work is going ahead in both cases.

The global Canadian uranium player Cameco (which, incidentally, is based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) has begun drilling at the Angela prospect and expects to come up with some uranium hits in very short order

This news is significant for two reasons. One is that it is further evidence of Cameco’s interest in Australia. The other is that the non-operator partner is Paladin Energy and underlines the potential that latter company presents as an even more influential player in the uranium world.

Actually, there’s a third significance: the surge to find more uranium is gathering speed.

Angela, and the nearby Pamela deposit, could contain as much as 13,000 tonnes of uranium, an estimate based on work done there between 1972 and 1983 by the Australian arm of Vancouver-based Uranerz Energy.

Remember that Cameco already has a large stake in our uranium industry after buying (in partnership with Mitsubishi) the large Kintyre deposit in Western Australia from Rio Tinto . Expect action there, too.

And it is on a search throughout the world for more uranium. It is raising fresh capital of $C460 million, which will give it cash reserves of more than $C700 million.

According to the Vancouver Sun, the company is eyeing Rio’s Rossing mine in Namibia. The paper also reports that Cameco is interested in assets owned by Rio subsidiary Energy Resources of Australia but that seems unlikely. ERA is hardly likely to sell its Ranger mine, and its only other asset is the undeveloped Jabiluka deposit - and nothing is going to change there in the foreseeable future.

There are also reports that Cameco is in talks with the Chinese about supply agreements for the number of new nuclear power stations being built or planned there.

As for Paladin, there is no doubt great attraction in getting some uranium production going in Australia in order to balance the political risk of its African operations.

The Kayelekera project in Malawi is now being ramped up and, by July, Paladin expects the plant at Langer Heinrich in Namibia to reach target production rates of 1680 tonnes of uranium per annum.

Paladin’s best project in Australia is, unfortunately for it, in Queensland where the state Labor government still regards uranium mining as one of the great horrors of the modern world. In its 50-50 joint venture with Summit Resources , Paladin is sitting on 23,258 tonnes, mainly in the Valhalla and Skal deposits near Mount Isa. At Skal, incidentally, the resource was recently upped by 47 per cent to 5580 tonnes.

So the Northern Territory remains Paladin’s best shot within Australia, and the company will no doubt be very keen to see what Cameco comes up with.

The other immediate development is that Mineral Commodities has concluded the deal that sees it running the Hoasib uranium project in Namibia. A significant exploration program is about to get under way.

Over the past few days we have seen several uranium companies hit new recent highs, among them Black Range Minerals , A-Cap Resources , Mantra Resources and Berkeley Resources .