Uranex Still Tends To Hide Its Uranium Light Under A Bushel
Modesty is a virtue, no doubt about that, but like all good things it can sometimes be overdone. This certainly seems to be the case with Uranex, an Australian listed uranium explorer. In April last year, about six months after the company listed, it announced that the Department of Overseas Uranium Resources Investment, which is part of the China National Nuclear Corporation, had signed a letter of intent for an initial 2 years to form a close working relationship for the exploration, development and offtake from potential uranium projects worldwide. That deal came about primarily because chairman Terry Ward was a former general manager of Mary Kathleen Uranium, a subsidiary of RTZ, and he was involved in talks with the Chinese in the early 70s and the relationship continued. The Chinese tend to have long memories for those they trust and it was this that won the day for Uranex despite its modest size and youth. Since then there has not been a squeak from the company about this working relationship and it is now half way through its initial period. Terry Ward confirms that it is still in place, but it is hard to pin him down on exactly what progress has been made. CNNC is a vertically integrated central government owned conglomerate responsible for the production, marketing , import and export of nuclear materials and uranium products for China. All uranium companies with any pretensions to production will be beating a path to the door of CNNC so shareholders in Uranex surely deserve to be told how the company is capitalising on its relationship.
That apart the company can also claim to be making good progress with its two most advanced projects, Thatcher Soak in Western Australia and Bahi in Tanzania. The latter resulted from Goldstream Mining’s long involvement in Tanzania as Uranex was a spin-off from Goldstream and inherited its parent’s first mover advantage in that country. Initially Uranex got hold of a radiometric database assembled by the Government in the late 1960s during the last uranium boom. It then applied modern techniques to it and came up with around 60 targets as the Bahi tenements cover an extensive closed drainage system which ultimately traps all uranium leached from underlying uranium bearing granites.
Back in November last year Uranex hit mineralization grading plus 1.0 kg/tonne U3O8 at the C1 prospect at Bahi North in central Tanzania. This discovery and subsequent progress confirms that the company has an emerging uranium province at Bahi. Since then grid based auger drill testing has now extended the interpreted near surface sheet of mineralization. Geological and radiometric logging of the auger drill samples indicates that it has been intersected over a 2000metre strike length with widths varying from 250 to 500metres and thickness of 0.5 to 3.0m. The mineralisation remains open to the north and north west. Ground radiometric surveying shows an associated linear coherent surface radiometric anomaly extends over a strike length of 3000metres so augur drilling is continuing and it looks as if there is more to come.
This year Uranex will define the deposit further, carry out some metallurgical testwork and initiate a tonnage and grade calculation. Both Bahi C1 and Thatcher Soak in Australia are calcrete deposits so it may be possible to mine them by low cost open pit mining. Thatcher Soak has a history and back in 1977 BP Minerals commissioned what was called a ‘resource potential’ for it. This was before the days of JORC and it should be accepted simply as a guide to the maximum probable amount of mineralization. This was given as 15 million tonnes with an average grade of 400 ppm U3O8 to contain 6,000 tonnes of U3O8. The current drill programme m is designed to investigate and quantify this historic deposit as well as its potential strike and down dip extensions. If it confirms the historic estimates Thatcher Soak will be one of the five largest calcrete uranium deposits in Australia with an in-situ investory of more than 13 million lbs of U3O8.
Without doubt the rating of Uranex, following cancellation of the ‘three mines’ policy of the Australian Labor Party, will benefit when the company finds time to explain its achievements and future policy in more detail. At the moment the website is sparse on information, as several shareholders have commented, and this is a pity for a company with real uranium expertise , a crucial relationship in China and two advanced projects. Look around the world and there are dozens of listed uranium companies unable to claim any of these, but they still attract investors.
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