Xemplar Energy Corp XEPRF

Namibia To Become Uranium Giant

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Country Set to Become Uranium Giant New Era (Windhoek) NEWS March 23, 2007 Posted to the web March 23, 2007 By Chrispin Inambao Rössing Uranium, a member of the Rio Tinto Group, says Namibia is going to produce 10 percent of the world's primary production of uranium by 2012 with the mineral now fetching a premium on global markets. This was revealed yesterday when Mike Leech, the Managing Director of Rössing Uranium and Willem van Rooyen the General Manager: Operations, briefed Mines and Energy Minister Erkki Nghimtina and his Zambian counterpart Kalombo Mwansa who visited the mine. Namibia is well on its way to repositioning itself as a global leader in uranium mining with the recent opening of the Langer Heinrich Uranium Mine, though there have been concerns particularly from environmentalists on the health effects of uranium mining. Nghimtina and his Zambian counterpart were also taken on a guided tour of the mine. During the briefing, the two ministers were told all sales at the mine are subject to national as well as the relevant international safeguards, including those stipulated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Since Namibia is an NTP signatory, it cannot sell uranium to non-signatory countries, the visitors were informed. Namibia is a safe, significant and a long-term supplier of uranium to the nuclear power industry while it remains a world leader. Recently, there has been talk that Namibia is seeking outside expertise to use some of its uranium as fuel for planned nuclear energy reactors to meet its growing energy needs. The growing nuclear power industry worldwide has resulted in a 20-year high in demand for uranium and in 2005 the mine produced 3,711 tonnes of uranium oxide. During that year, 12 million tonnes of rock passed through the plant, compared with 11 million tonnes in 2004. The same year, the South African Rand to which the Namibian dollar is pegged appreciated by about 11 percent against the US dollar. Since uranium trade on the world market is done in US dollars, sale proceeds are deposited into Rössing's banks in Namibia in US dollars. But the mine still found itself in a tax loss situation in 2005 and personal income tax was the only indirect contribution that the mine made to the Namibian government in 2005, while its payments for goods and services bought in Namibia amounted to 60 percent of the money spent while those imported amounted to 40 percent of expenditure. The nearby mining town of Arandis was established in 1976 by the mine to accommodate its employees and their families but some two years after independence in March 1990 the town was handed over to the government . Uranium processing ore is normally delivered to the primary crushers by haul trucks and then by conveyor to the coarse ore stockpile. It passes through a further series of crushers and screens until the particles are smaller than 19 mm. After being weighed the ore is stored on another stockpile. Thereafter the uranium is sent for leaching where combined leaching and oxidation takes place in large mechanical tanks where the ore is oxidised by ferric sulphate and dissolved in a sulphuric acid solution. Namibian uranium provides nuclear fuel that lights up several Asian and American countries. Copyright © 2007 New Era. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).