Paladin Energy Ltd PALAF

RE: notable hurdles

[madbiker44]

If you are in any stock you should be doing some DD as well as keeping abreast of the happenings or you could get side swiped and take an unexpected loss. That being said, read this from the last weeks NR, it might help answer your question about,"notable hurdles". Tank liner failures in the leaching circuit caused considerable downtime in late January and early February as sections of the liner also plugged circuit heat exchangers and caused damage to the exchanger internals. The majority of the tank liner material is now removed. Five of the six tanks are now available for operation as one tank at a time is taken out of service for re-lining. This is expected to take several months to complete, with minimal impact on process production efficiency. The leaching/CCD circuit is now capable of operating at design capacity. Heat exchanger repairs were successfully completed in early March. - In the early ramp-up phase, the Ion Exchange columns experienced unacceptable flow restrictions. Backwash modifications were tested and this successfully increased flows back to design levels in the columns. - The modifications will continue for all remaining columns and will be complete by late April. - Early deficiencies in the precipitation and drying circuits have been rectified with current throughput levels equal to 60% to 70% of design rates. Full design production rates in this area are expected once upgrades to the dryer venting system are complete, in early May. Overall plant availability continues to improve. Current production capacity trends show that the targeted design rate of 2.6Mlbs U3O8 per annum will be reached as forecast by June this year. Importantly, the alkaline leach process has been successfully proven with the yellowcake meeting the required product specification. Production to the end of June 2007 ramp-up phase is expected to be in the vicinity of 400,000lbs to 600,000lbs, with the drop in stated production being the result of the downtime experienced during the early ramp-up phase in January/February. The Langer Heinrich mine coming into full production by mid year could not be better timed in terms of gaining benefit for Paladin from the positive prevailing market conditions. With availability of primary uranium widely recognised to be in extremely short supply and continued price increases confidently expected, Paladin's flagship project with its available pounds will create considerable strategic opportunities. The second shipment of yellowcake product is scheduled to depart Namibia in mid April. The Kayelekera Project in Malawi is on target as planned but, if you keep abreast of the news you would know that the political parties are in a battle because of a secret deal concerning PDN, supposedly made with certian political bigwigs in the governing party. The opposition wants to know what the terms are, most likely to get a piece of the pie. I am not entirely sure how this issue will affect the project but, will be ironed out fairly quickly. It's all about the money in those countries....Just my opinion of course.. Cheers..Mad