Gold miner Sibanye Gold has sold its first consignment of uranium to South Africa’s State-owned Nuclear Fuels Corporation (Nufcor), where the 10 t of ammonium diuranate will be calcined into uranium oxide (U3O8).

The JSE-, NYSE- and Nasdaq-listed Sibanye, headed by CEO Neal Froneman, said last week 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 expects 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/m.

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

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.