The economic feasibility of developing the already thoroughly drilled uranium resource in South Africa’s Springbok Flats is being looked at anew.

The unlisted Holgoun – headed by South Africa’s former Public Enterprises director-general and former Bateman Engineering CEO Dr Sivi Gounden – is undertaking the study, which Gounden tells Mining Weekly may result in the construction of a pilot plant in the next year to 18 months.

“The resource is not without its technical complexities, but that’s the new frontier in the resource game. Companies that are willing to combine classic mining know-how with innovation are the ones that are going to chart the new course,” Gounden tells Mining Weekly.

The company believes that it has done enough to yield the production of 1,5-million pounds of U308 uranium oxide a year and the uranium comes with a power coproduct in the form of steam.

The inferred resource has some 213-mil-lion pounds of U308 with grades of one pound a ton, and 459-million tons of steam coal.

The estimation of the resource has been done in compliance with the code of the South African Mineral Resource Committee.

It is envisaged that the uranium will be mined first and the coal later, making use of the infrastructure built to mine the uranium.

Holgoun has acquired drilling data from BHP Billiton, which Gencor’s former TransNatal Coal gathered in the seventies.

“It’s a project whose time has come,” Gounden says.

Holgoun has worked with State-owned mineral research organisation Mintek, of Randburg, which has carried out a series of desktop studies to dispel the notion that the uranium is in the 5-m coal seam.

Gounden says that the uranium actually resides in a half-metre shale band, which overlays the coal, with hardly any uranium in the coal itself.

Having completed additional metal-lurgical drilling and testwork at a time of increased demand for power, Holgoun is now “reasonably confident” that it understands the extraction process.

Planned is an “ashing” of the shale at high temperature in a fluidised bed, with the uranium adhering to the ash, which is then acid-leached to produce the U308.

Holgoun estimates that the steam generated is sufficient to produce 250 MW 
of electricity, based on the annual produc-tion of 1,5-million pounds of U308.

“We had in the past framed the project as a megaproject, where we were talking about a production capability of 4,5-million pounds of U308 a year and 750 MW of steam. All we’ve done now is we’ve modularised the plan.

“We are now looking to move into pilot plant stage in the next year to 18 months,” he says.

Holgoun, which also has thermal coal projects in Mpumalanga province, owns 
7% of Samancor Chrome, 5,4% of 
Optimum Coal, which was last month listed on the JSE, and 10% of Shaft Sinkers. Gounden is also Optimum Coal’s nonexecutive chairperson.

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