marenica to undertake trial uranium mining

Marenica to undertake trial uranium mining in Namibia

By: Esmarie Swanepoel
16th July 2010
Updated 1 hour 54 minutes ago

PERTH (miningweekly.com) Uranium developer Marenica Energy would start trial mining in Namibia in the 2010/11 financial year, as it continues to progress the project towards development and production, CEO John Young said on Friday.

I am confident that we have the right project and the right strategy in place to develop Marenica as a substantial international uranium producer in Namibia by 2014, he stated.

The trial mining would enable bulk metallurgical and pilot plant testwork to be progressed to feasibility study level, and would be undertaken once additional metallurgical testwork has been done on a broader range of samples to confirm the use of heap-leach technology.

We have made significant progress in bringing our Marenica project closer to production. Completing preliminary scoping work has clearly demonstrated that a large heap-leach operation shows positive economics, and will deliver far superior financial returns compared with an agitated leach circuit, said Young.

The Marenica uranium project is estimated to contain 85-million pounds of contained uranium oxide, consisting of 31-million tons of indicated resource, and 196-million tons of inferred resource.

Young told shareholders on Friday that the company would also focus on optimisation work to further improve the projects financial parameters during the next financial year, and would continue drilling to further define the resource, improve continuity and grade and to convert resource to reserves.

Our board and management team are dedicated to progressing the Marenica project as rapidly as possible, however, we will also continue to assess project and corporate opportunities that will add substantial value to the company.

Young further reiterated his confidence that the fundamental reasons for pursuing the development of a new uranium project remained sound.

He noted that global demand for uranium continued to increase rapidly, with 57 nuclear power plants currently under construction, over 15 countries, and a further 151 either planned ore ordered world wide.

This represents significant growth and could result in a potential widening of the supply-demand gap over the next few years.
Edited by: Mariaan Webb