The Russians wanted to get hold of Husab- hence the coincidence of the announced US$1bn investment by Moscow and the estimated capex for Husab.
I hear it on good authority the Russians had bad moithed Extract and had tried to get the Nam govt to agree to give a Russian firm the ML for Husab! Extract was reassured when the Nam govt ignored this.
So the Russians went away- there are no other economically-mineable U deposits in Namibia's central Namib area that are not already under licence (Bannerman, Deep Yellow, Marenica, Forsys etc).
Of course now we know that all along the Nam govt was looking for the Chinese to come in and take over Husab- since it did not like the idea of Rio becomining over-dominant in the uranium sector. Helped along of course by the greed to cash in stock options of certain parties in Extract's largest shareholders which neatly coincided with Namibia's strategy so could be presented as a fair all-round outcome.
EXT Price at posting:
$8.57 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
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