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Positive outcomes for Namibian uranium deposits

6th April 2012

  

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A strategic technical review conducted by a technical steering committee (TSC), comprising international uranium company Marenica Energy personnel and recognised independent industry experts, has concluded, from detailed mineralogical testwork, that the miner’s 75%-owned Marenica uranium deposit, in Namibia, has a number of distinctive characteristics which may make it amenable to the use of low capital and operating cost processes to recover the uranium.

These techniques are not usually used in the uranium industry. They are, however, well established, conventional metal- lurgical processes used extensively in other industries, says Marenica Energy.

Successful application of these techniques to the Marenica ore will significantly upgrade the uranium concentration. In turn, this would reduce the amount of material to be treated and lower the capital and operating costs for processing, potentially resulting in significantly enhanced project economics.

Background to the Strategic Technical Review
The board of Marenica Energy views the results of the review as a significant technical and strategic breakthrough for the Marenica project, paving the way for an updated project scoping study to unlock the value of this significant asset, says the company.

The Marenica uranium deposit, about 90 km north-east of Swakopmund, in Namibia, comprises a total Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant indicated and inferred resource of 276-million tons at 94 parts per million uranium oxide for 57-million pounds contained uranium oxide.

The deposit is located in the fourth-largest uranium-producing region in the world, in close proximity to a series of major uranium mines, such as international mining group Rio Tinto’s Rössing mine and ASX- and TSX-listed uranium producer Paladin Resources’ Langer Heinrich uranium mine.

Since acquiring the Marenica project in 2006, the company has conducted extensive exploration and resource drilling to establish the current resource inventory. In the context of the region’s resources, Marenica represents a large-tonnage, low-grade deposit, comparable to Areva’s Trekkopje deposit, 30 km to the south.

The company has also completed some metallurgical testwork such as the assessment of various upgrade options, as well as a scoping assessment of various conventional uranium process routes.

Studies using established ura- nium metallurgical process routes, such as heap leach, tank leach and on-site leaching, have led the board to conclude that, under current and projected uranium prices, the project is unlikely to be economically viable.

Accordingly, the board decided that continued spending on resource development and conventional metallurgy could not be justified and, in late 2011, initiated the review of the project.

Outcome
The TSC has completed detailed mineralogical testwork on the Marenica uranium ore. This work has found that the uranium mineralisation in the deposit has distinctive characteristics. It occurs as a single mineral, in a distinct size band, is well liberated and also heavier than the surrounding rock.

These characteristics present an opportunity to use low capital and operating cost processes to recover the uranium by extracting and concentrating the uranium using techniques such as screening and desliming, gravity separation, magnetic separation and flotation.


After reviewing these findings, Marenica commissioned the Australian government-owned Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to further investigate the mineralogy.

Next Steps
The board has approved a programme of further metallurgical testwork to be undertaken on a bulk sample of Marenica ore. This work is to include gravity and magnetic separation, flotation, screening and desliming and is expected to take six months.

It will be undertaken in two phases, the first phase of which consists of scoping level bench-top testwork on small sample masses available in Perth to assess the unit processes of magnetic separation and gravity separation. A literature search will be completed on the flotation process with reagents sourced. A second channel sample will be tested at the CSIRO to compare the uranium mineralogy.

This phase will provide an indication of the suitability of each of these unit operations ahead of Phase 2, which

involves obtaining a representative bulk sample from a costean through the orezone. This will provide a greater sample mass to feed extensive testwork programmes to further develop each of the proposed unit operations.

If this work is successful, the board has agreed in principle to a project scoping study to confirm the viability of the project.
The board believes that, with substantial upgrades outlined above, the project economics would be materially improved.

“This is an exciting and important development that has the potential to significantly increase the value of the Marenica uranium deposit,” says Marenica chairperson Robert Pearce.

“The application of these processing techniques which are not normally used in uranium mining may provide the key to unlocking the value of a large, low-grade deposit like the Marenica deposit, with possible application to other similar deposits around the world,” he says.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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