Potential Kalahari Minerals bidder China Guangdong Nuclear Power (CGNP) is talking about selling part of Kalahlari's indirectly-owned Husab uranium project in Namibia. CGNP withdrew from earlier talks about a 290p-a-share bid for the AIM-quoted company and now has until Thursday week, 8th December, to proceed with a lower offer in the 243p-to-255p range.
But, according to Aussie-quoted Extract Resources, which owns Husab directly, CGNP is understood to have opened talks already about selling 10 per cent of Husab, now seen as a world-class project with a potential resource base of up to 500 million lbs of uranium oxide U3O8, to Epangelo, Namibia's state-owned mining company. AIM-quoted Kalahari is at the centre of the issue because of its crucial 42.76 per cent interest in Extract.
CGNP pulled out of its original higher bid talks after Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster. But the Chinese group is clearly anxious to gain access to this new source of nuclear power and selling a stake to the host country's appropriate state company could seem a shrewd diplomatic move.
However, house broker Ambrian points out a sale to Epangelo would be conditional on CGNP securing a controlling interest in Husab and that depends on obtaining control of Extract. Some bulls hint that mining giant Rio Tinto, a Kalahari shareholder whose longstanding Rossing uranium mine is adjacent to Husab's important Rossing South deposit, could potentially be waiting in the wings.
First recommended by Growth Company Investor at 28p in 2007, Kalahari shares have traded between 301p and 198.25p over the past year and now stand at 227p, down 2p this morning, valuing the company at £569.2 million. They could prove volatile in the short term, but look worth holding on a medium term view.
EXT Price at posting:
$7.95 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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