PERTH (miningweeekly.com) − ASX- and TSX-listed Extract Resources has received environmental approval for its Husab uranium project and has also lodged a mining licence application for the Namibia project.

The environmental-impact assessment (EIA) and the environmental-management plan (EMP) for the proposed mining licence area were lodged with the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism in November.

Extract said that the approval of the EIA and EMP was a necessary step for obtaining a mining licence for Husab, which is the fifth-largest uranium-only deposit in the world.

“Receipt of this environmental approval is a key milestone as we develop the world-class uranium mine at Husab,” said MD Jonathan Leslie.

“We have undertaken extensive specialist environmental studies and we are committed to ensuring our environmental standards adhere to international best practice.”

Extract expects the results for the Husab definitive feasibility study (DFS) in the first quarter of next year, with plant commissioning scheduled for the first quarter in 2014.

The DFS, which was initiated in April last year, was being prepared on the basis of a conventional openpit mine, initially over zones 1 and 2, supplying 15-million tons of ore a year to a conventional agitated acid-leach plant, to produce around 15-million pounds of uranium oxide a year.

The rate of production would rank the Husab mine as the second-largest uranium mine in the world, based on production.



 

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