some background on beaufort group, page-3

Lets also not forget about the possible significance of these comments from Areva back in Feb of this year. Especially now that Pen is looking at a first up target of 30ml lbs.

In particular, this comment caught my attention

"We are exploring vigorously for new uranium opportunities in South Africa and we are negotiating with existing South African uranium-miners for partnerships"




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French group interested in uranium projects in South Africa
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By: Keith Campbell
19th February 2010
TEXT SIZE Major world nuclear group Areva is thinking of constructing a uranium-processing plant in South Africa.

This is a project which is being discussed within Areva, reveals Areva South African chairperson Mohamed Madhi. We are still in the investigation stage.

Certain technical and commercial issues need to be overcome before we start the prefeasibility study. If these issues are settled soon, we expect that the prefeasibility could be finished by the end of this year.

If built, the plant would process uranium from across Southern Africa.

We are exploring vigorously for new uranium opportunities in South Africa and we are negotiating with existing South African uranium-miners for partnerships, he highlights. We are busy with a major project in Namibia, which is going according to plan. We are now one of the biggest foreign investors in Namibia.

Arevas South African exploration programme, being undertaken by subsidiary company A-Lukisa, is focused in the Beaufort West district in the Karoo.

In Namibia, Areva is developing the 532-million Trekkopje mine in the Erongo region, some 40 km from the coast. It will be an opencast operation exploiting a shallow, low-grade but high-tonnage deposit, which will process the uranium ore using an alkaline heap-leaching process. This will be the first time that this process will be used for uranium on such a large scale.

As the heap-leaching process will require 17-million cubic metres of water a year, Areva is building a large desalination plant on the coast, at Wlotzkasbaken, north of Swakopmund. The intake pipes will have an annual capacity of 45-million cubic metres. The company hopes to start production at Trekkopje in 2011 or 2012, with production forecast at 3 000 t/y and an estimated life of 12 years.

For us, security of supply is essential. We try and ensure a diversity of sources of supply, explains Madhi. We are the only company in the world that guarantees uranium supply to our clients, and we have never defaulted.

Areva, which is owned by the French State, is the biggest nuclear company in the world, and covers the entire spectrum from the mining, processing and enriching of uranium, through the production of nuclear fuel and the design, building, maintenance, upgrade and operation of nuclear reactors, to the treatment and recycling of nuclear fuel and waste, the clean up of nuclear facilities, and the supply of all nuclear support and logistics services.
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NK