Ferret's Stocks to Watch: BANNERMAN & EXTRACT RESOURCES 08:58, Monday, 6 August 2007
TWO LOCAL EXPLORERS JOIN IN SEARCH FOR URANIUM IN NAMIBIA
Sydney - Monday - August 6: (RWE Aust Business News) ****************************************************
Two WA-based uranium explorers are drilling for uranium in the highly prospective regions in Namibia on the African continent.
They are lead company, Bannerman Resources Ltd (ASX:BMN) and associate Extract Resources Ltd (ASX:EXT).
The regions in which the two explorers are working are highly regarded as potential uranium producers.
Directors of the companies have organised a party of journalists and stock broker researchers to look over their operation in Namibia in a couple of weeks time.
Focus of attention is the Husab Project (EPL3138) which is a joint venture with West Africa Gold Exploration (Namibia) P/L (WAGE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kalahari Minerals Plc, and Extract Resources (Namibia) P/L.
The project is located in Namibia about 50 kilometres east of the coastal town of Swakopmund.
The focus of current exploration is the 550 square kilometres EPL3138 which is situated in a known uranium province strategically located between the Rossing granite (alaskite) hosted uranium mine (Rio Tinto 68.6 per cent), and the palaeochannel-hosted Langer Heinrich deposit, currently being developed by Paladin Resources Ltd.
This area is also prospective for base metals, and industrial metals.
Extract has earned a 51 per cent interest in the Husab Joint Venture by spending $400,000 on exploration.
There is also a licence application over EPL3439.
The target currently being drilled represents only one of a number of known uranium-bearing alaskites within the 550 sq km project area.
The first holes ever drilled on the Ida Central target have intersected potentially economic grade uranium.
These high-grade results (for alaskite hosted primary uranium mineralisation) are exceptional, given that the evaluation of the Ida Central target is still at an early stage.
The dramatic increase in uranium exploration is related to current global reactor demand.
A total of 442 reactors are currently operating, producing 16 per cent of the world's electricity in 31 countries.
Twenty eight reactors under construction and 222 reactors are planned or proposed.
Annual production of 41,600 tonnes of uranium compares with annual reactor demand of 66,500 tonnes.
The secondary supply market is heavily drawn down and speculative hoarding and hedging have been taking place, while demand is set to peak around 2010-2012.
The US has 26 per cent of the total nuclear power stations, next comes France with 17pc, Japan 13pc, Russia 6pc along with Germany.
Bringing up the rear is South Korea 5pc, Ukraine 4pc and Canada 3pc.
SHARE PRICE MOVEMENTS *********************
Shares of Bannerman Resources rose 5c to $2.40 on Friday. Rolling high for the year is $3.94 and low 41.33c. The company has 127.5 shares on issue with a market cap of $306 million.
Shares of Extract Resources rose 9c to 75c on Friday. It has 184 million shares on issue with a market cap of $138 million.
Bannerman says the major projects are located in Namibia, adjacent to the Rossing and Langer Heinrich uranium mines.
Additional uranium projects are in Botswana.
The first deposit is to be drilled out by end of 2007 and is heading towards development.
In April 2006 the company began an 8,000m drilling program at its 51 per cent-owned Husab project, situated in a known uranium province strategically located between the Rossing granite-hosted uranium mine, and the palaeochannel-hosted Langer Heinrich deposit.
The drilling followed a ground-based spectrometer survey which indicated uranium mineralisation along a strike distance of over four kilometres on the Ida Central target.
The commencement of the maiden drilling program has been a highlight for the company, particularly after assays confirmed excellent uranium grades over substantial widths.
While this program is at an early stage, the initial results have exceeded initial expectations, and gave the company confidence in the ongoing evaluation of the Ida target.
Three other targets have also been established on the 550 sq km area, with more detailed metallurgical work having been commenced on the historic fluorspar area where uranium, copper and lead are associated with the fluorspar in multiple narrow veins striking a number of kilometres.
The other promising targets identified appear to be the southern extension of the Rossing stratigraphy, and the eastern extremity of the Goanikontes Dome.
In April Bannerman Resources completed the initial diamond drilling program at the Goanikontes project.
The data provided from this program, combined with the re-probing and downhole photographing of historic holes, has closely approximated the information derived from the historic drilling proving this information to be accurate, relevant and valid for estimating the uranium resource at Goanikontes Anomaly 'A'.
The grades are also consistent with production grades produced from the Rossing mine, located just 30km to the northeast, which produces at a grade between 300 and 400 ppm U3O8.
BACKGROUND **********
Bannerman Resources Ltd is an emerging international uranium producer with operating projects in Namibia and Botswana and licences in Australia.
The company's major focus is on exploring and developing uranium projects in Namibia and Botswana.
Bannerman Resources was incorporated in February 2005 as a public company for the purposes of acquiring prospective exploration projects that are generally under explored.
The Board has a proven track record of recognising and advancing under explored projects and these skills will ensure maximum returns from the current portfolio of projects.
The Board's primary aim is to become a successful and profitable exploration and mining company, advance the shareholders interests and asset values.
The White Ring (35pc) project is located in the Ashburnton mineral field in WA.
Previous explorers have reported significant levels of uranium mineralisation (up to 1,840 ppm).
BACKGROUND **********
Extract Resources is a listed mining and exploration company based in Perth, with operations in both Australia and Namibia.
Extract's main focus is to invest in advanced exploration and/or development opportunities with a key focus on highly prospective uranium projects.
The first investment for Extract was the development of the NOA2 gold resource at Burnakura.
Cashflows from this project together with additional capital raised will be applied towards increasing Extract's mineral inventory through both exploration and other acquisition opportunities, such as the company's Namibian operations and a renewed focus on uranium exploration.
Extract's growth strategy is to position itself as a well-funded uranium exploration company with robust wholly owned projects that are capable of being advanced to a resource definition stage in the short term.
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