https://www.miningweekly.com

Sibanye sells first uranium to nuclear fuels corporation

Sibanye Gold CEO Neal Froneman

Sibanye Gold CEO Neal Froneman

Photo by Duane Daws

29th May 2014

By: Martin Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

  

Font size: - +

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Sibanye Gold has sold its first consignment of uranium to the Nuclear Fuels Corporation (Nufcor), where the 10 t of ammonium diuranate will be calcined into uranium oxide (U3O8).

Nufcor is a wholly-owned subsidiary of AngloGold Ashanti and provides an upgrading toll-treating facility to make the uranium concentrate saleable.

The JSE-, NYSE- and Nasdaq-listed Sibanye, headed by CEO Neal Froneman, said on Thursday that production of U3O8 from its Ezulwini plant, in Westonaria, would build up to a level of 600 000 lb/y by the end of 2016.

Revenue from uranium will lower the total cost of producing gold from the Cooke Operation, where increased throughput from the uranium by-product areas of Sibanye’s Cooke 3 and 4 gold mines is being facilitated by ore reserve development that is increasing face availability.

Sibanye anticipates lower costs and increased Cooke profitability as both gold and uranium production rises in the next 18 months.

Significant surface sources of uranium are also contained in the 795-million tons of surface tailings that Sibanye owns on the West Rand, which are said to contain 7.1-million ounces of gold and 115-million pounds of uranium.

Built by the now defunct First Uranium Corporation for R1.2-billion, the Ezulwini gold and uranium plant has a combined milling and gold leaching capacity of 200 000 t a month.

Its modularised uranium facility, made up of two 50 000 t a month modules, has a nameplate capacity of 100 000 t a month.

Froneman, who led the now also defunct Uranium One uranium-mining company launched in 2006, is exploring ways of securing uranium contracts to limit the company’s exposure to the weak prevailing Fukushima-hit spot market.

The longer-term outlook for uranium, which is primarily sold into longer-term contracts with power utilities, remains positive, with uranium demand expected to outstrip supply from 2017, driven by planned nuclear power growth in China and reactor restarts in Japan.

Reduced supply from the highly enriched uranium programme as a result of the conclusion of the US-Russia deal in 2013 is also expected to support the price in the future.

Meanwhile, Nufcor is providing Sibanye with the offtake it needs to get going in an energy material that both JSE-listed AngloGold Ashanti and mining companies in Namibia produce.

 

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

Showroom

John Deere (Pty) Ltd
John Deere (Pty) Ltd

In 1958 John Deere Construction made its first introduction to the industry with their model 64 bulldozer.

VISIT SHOWROOM 
GreaseMax
GreaseMax

GreaseMax is a chemically operated automatic lubricator.

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Hyphen, Eva mine, ferrochrome price make headlines
Hyphen, Eva mine, ferrochrome price make headlines
27th March 2024
Resources Watch
Resources Watch
27th March 2024

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.11 0.149s - 90pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now