mining weekly article

Timeline for Namibia uranium project study revised on board review

By: Esmarie Swanepoel
5th November 2010

PERTH (miningweekly.com) ? Uranium explorer Extract Resources has pushed back the timeline for the finalisation of a definitive feasibility study (DFS) on its Husab project, in Namibia.

CEO Jonathan Leslie said in an address to shareholders that the study results were now anticipated in the first quarter of 2011, instead of the fourth quarter of this year. The delay would allow the board to undertake a process of review, validation, value engineering and optimisation, prior to the release of the DFS.

?Our target for plant commissioning is in the first quarter of 2014,? Leslie told shareholders at the company?s annual general meeting.

The DFS, which was initiated in April last year, was being prepared on the basis of a conventional openpit mine, initially over zones 1 and 2, supplying 15-million tons of ore a year to a conventional agitated acid-leach plant, to produce around 15-million pounds of uranium oxide (U3O8) a year.

The rate of production would rank the Husab mine as the second-largest uranium mine in the world, based on production, Leslie said.

He noted that once in operation, the Husab mine is expected to be among the largest openpit mining operations in the world, and a key part of the DFS was the preparation of a detailed mine plan for the resource.

?Over half of the Husab uranium project?s operating costs will be incurred on the mine and, thus, there is the opportunity to create significant value by fully optimising the mine plan,? he said.

The existing mine schedule envisaged the development of starter pits at both zone 1 and 2. But Leslie told shareholders that, given the higher grade of zone 2, the lower project strip ratio after removal of the overburden, and the indications that zone 2 was less geologically complex than zone 1, Extract was examining the impact of mining a greater portion of the material from this area in the initial years.

?Our base case remains to develop the Husab mine as a standalone project,? said Leslie.

He added that Extract?s development plan for the plant and related infrastructure is based on a conventional engineering procurement and construction management contract, with close interaction between the engineering consultants and the owner?s team.
Edited by: Terence Creamer