JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The North West provincial government had "unexpectedly" withdrawn its environmental authorisation (EA) for a tailings project at Mine Waste Solutions, the JSE- and TSX-listed First Uranium said on Wednesday.

First Uranium CEO Gordon Miller reported that the company was seeking clarification from the North West provincial government's Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Rural Development (NWDACE) before taking any action.

The project being denied environmental authorisation is a tailings storage facility that is designed to accommodate future tailings deposition requirements at Mine Waste Solutions' tailings recovery project in the western Witwatersrand Basin, some 160 km west of Johannesburg.

Miller said that provincial government permission to build the facility was received last July, but then suspended in reaction to appeals and now withdrawn altogether.

"We will keep shareholders informed as more information becomes available," Miller promised.

After interested third parties lodged three appeals, the offices of the Member of the Executive Council advised Mine Waste Solutions that permission had become dependent on the outcome of an appeal process that was being conducted in terms of South Africa's National Environmental Management Act (Nema).

Subsequently, NWDACE gave notice of the complete withdrawal of the record of decision.

Miller said that First Uranium's request for a Nema-based retrospective authorisation process to be set in motion was unsuccessful.

Miller told Mining Weekly Online in December that the company was hoping to complete its current construction programme by mid-2010.

Besides the now-stalled Mine Waste Solutions' tailings project, the company is also developing the underground Ezulwini mine in Gauteng in order to position itself as a low-cost producer of gold and uranium.

Miller said in December that the challenge facing the company was in ensuring final construction of the programme at Mine Waste Solutions.

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