28 Nov (NucNet): Namibian state-owned Epangelo Mining Company today finalised an agreement to buy a 10 percent stake in Swakop Uranium, which is developing the Husab uranium mine project near Swakopmund in Namibia.
Swakop Uranum said in a statement that the deal is valued at more than 1.8 billion Namibian dollars (NAD) (about 200 million US dollars, 157 million euro).
At the signing ceremony, Swakop Uranium’s deputy chairman Zheng Keping said approximately 800,000 metres of drilling has been undertaken over three years to improve the Husab resource.
Mr Keping said more than NAD 1 billion has already been spent to get the project to its current state. “Our budgets estimate a further NAD 20 billion will be needed to bring the project to fruition,” he said.
Epangelo said in a statement that the acquisition of a stake in Swakop Uranium marks “a very significant chapter” in Namibian mining history in general and a huge milestone for Epangelo Mining Company in particular.
Last year, Namibia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy announced a directive to increase the country’s benefit from “strategic minerals”.
Swakop Uranium is a wholly-owned Namibian subsidiary of Taurus Minerals Limited, an entity owned by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Company Uranium Resources Company Limited and the China-Africa Development Fund.
The Husab mine will take approximately 34 months to build, with production expected in the third quarter of 2015, Swakop Uranium said.
Earlier this month work began on construction of the Husab mine following the signing in Beijing of the engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contract.
The Husab ore body is the highest-grade, granite-hosted uranium deposit in Namibia, and the third largest uranium-only deposit in the world. Swakop Uranium is developing and constructing the mine, which has the potential to produce 15 million pounds per annum of uranium oxide (U3O8) per annum. This is more than the total current uranium production of Namibia and will elevate the country past Australia, Canada and Niger to the second rung on the world ladder of uranium producers, Swakop Uranium said.
Husab is being developed as a low-risk, conventional, large-scale load-and-haul open pit mine, feeding ore to a conventional agitated acid leach process plant.
According to Swakop Uranium, the mine has a potential life of more than 20 years, with uranium reserves of at least 280 million tonnes.
