I posted this note in Feb after Areva announced delays....''This...

I posted this note in Feb after Areva announced delays....

''This will take 15m lbs per annum out of the supply forecasts for 2012 and 2013 - and I'd be prepared to bet for some time after that too!!!!! Just shows how hard it is to get a uranium mine up and running.....''

Now it looks like they are closing it down.........see story in Financial Times today


Areva takes €1.6bn hit from uranium bet
By James Boxell in Paris Financial Times 13/12/2012

'Atomic' Anne Lauvergeon, former chief executive

Areva, France’s state-owned nuclear champion, will report an operating loss of up to €1.6bn this year, largely from a ruinous bet on uranium prices with the 2007 acquisition of a small-cap miner.

The company paid €1.8bn for UraMin, a Canada-based company with assets in Namibia, the Central African Republic and South Africa, when uranium was about $138 a pound. Today the commodity used to power atomic reactors is trading at about $50 after demand slumped following this year’s nuclear disaster in Japan.

Areva on Monday said deposits at UraMin’s mines were far smaller than expected.

The company is taking a €1.46bn writedown on UraMin, on top of a €426m provision last year. The size of the charge is embarrassing for the French government, which sanctioned the purchase, and Anne Lauvergeon, Areva’s long-serving former chief executive. UraMin had been listed on Aim, London’s junior exchange, for just two years after floating with a value of £120m. The deal was part of an ambitious attempt to turn Areva into a nuclear industry all-rounder, with interests ranging from its core reactor-building business to the treatment of nuclear waste and substantial mining assets.

Areva said it would take a further €900m in charges related to its nuclear activities, including cost overruns on its delayed third-generation plant in Finland.
The group has had a difficult year. After the Fukushima disaster, Germany and several other countries decided to scrap nuclear power, while Ms Lauvergeon, who was known as “Atomic Anne”, was ousted in June by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.
The writedowns are part of an attempt by Luc Oursel, Ms Lauvergeon’s replacement and former chief operating officer, to clean the slate as he cuts the international workforce and planned capital spending after Fukushima.
Areva said the writedowns meant operating losses this year should be between €1.4bn and €1.6bn, the first loss for the 10-year-old group.
Mr Oursel said he would cut yearly costs by at least €1bn by 2015 and sell at least €1.2bn of unidentified assets by 2016 to restore profits and reduce debt.
A director at France’s sovereign wealth fund told Reuters on Monday it wanted to buy Areva’s 26 per cent stake in Eramet, a nickel miner.
Mr Oursel is due to announce a five-year plan on Tuesday to restructure the international operations, which is likely to involve job losses in Germany and a recruitment freeze in France. The government has told him he cannot cut French jobs.
Mr Oursel said on Monday night he was confident about the industry’s future because of the need to cut reliance on carbon-producing energy sources.
“Considering the expected growth in electric consumption, we are convinced that the outlook for nuclear and renewable energy development remains strong?.?.?. even if expansion of the global installed base of nuclear reactors is postponed.”