Name and Location
Etango uranium project (formerly Goanikontes), Erongo, Namibia.

Client
The project is 80%-owned by ASX- and TSX-listed Bannerman Resources. The company aims to proceed with the help of a development partner.

Project Description
The Etango project has Joint Ore Reserves Committee- and National Instrument 43-101 compliant ore reserves totalling 279.6-million tonnes at an average grade of 194 parts per million uranium oxide (U₃O₈) for 119.3-million pounds of contained U₃O₈.

A definitive feasibility study (DFS) has increased expected output at Etango by about 33%, after the plant size increased from 15-million tonnes to 20-million tonsne a year. Production is expected to be from seven- to nine-million pounds of U3O8 a year for the first five years and from six- to eight-million pounds of U₃O₈ a year thereafter, for a minimum mine life of 16 years. This would place Etango among the world’s top ten uranium-only mining operations.

Envisioned is a conventional openpit mining operation, which will use 550 t hydraulic back-hoe excavators and 220 t diesel/electric haul trucks.

Drilling and blasting will be conducted on 12 m benches and mining on 4 m to 4.5 m flitches to minimise ore dilution. With this configuration, the mining rate is scheduled at a maximum 100-million tons a year.

The DFS has also identified Etango mineralisation to be most suitable for heap leaching.

Further, significant upside exists at Etango through the potential conversion of existing inferred resources, as well as through new drilling programmes currently under way for a targeted mine life of more than 20 years.

Value
Preproduction capital is estimated at $870-million.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
While Bannerman continues to reduce its corporate overheads and align its project activities to minimise its working capital requirements in the current adverse uranium and equities markets, it is focusing on two key areas of opportunity arising from the DFS.

The internal review of the project development model, as depicted in the DFS, focused primarily on the geological and resource models. The approach to the resource model, which was completed in October 2010, was based on the 12 m bench-mining configuration adopted in the PFS. However, in the DFS, the bench-mining configuration was changed to 4 m to improve the ore mining selectivity.

As a result, the internal review is reinterpreting the ore and waste boundaries to decide whether more selective ore modelling will better represent the mining configuration adopted in the DFS. A potential outcome of the greater selectivity may be a higher ore feed grade to the processing plant. This work is ongoing.

In addition, a work plan is being compiled to target reductions in the mining equipment fleet and mining operating cost by further evaluating the mining schedule. The mining-related components collectively constitute about 40% of the estimated total capital cost, while the mining activities account for about 50% of the estimated operating cost.

Further, Bannerman continues to engage with interested parties to investigate a financing model that will enable the fast-tracking of a commitment to the project development in a rising uranium price environment.

Bannerman has reported that the technical design of a pilot plant for the Etango project has been completed. This will serve to demonstrate the process flow sheet to potential financiers and generate the data to enable the detailed design phase of the future development, which will follow a board commitment to develop the project.

The environmental- and social-impact study on the pilot plant has started.

A decision to proceed with the programme remains subject to receipt of the requisite environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, and an improvement in the uranium price outlook.

Further, the company has received a two-year renewal of the exclusive prospecting licence 3345, which hosts the Etango project.

The Ministry of Environment and Tourism granted formal environmental approval to Bannerman for development of the Etango project in the September 2012 quarter. Bannerman also lodged the DFS with the Ministry of Mines and Energy in the same quarter, in support of the existing Etango mining licence application.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Amec Minproc, Bateman Engineering, Metago Environmental Engineers, Coffey Mining, A Speiser Environmental Consultants and ERM.

On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.

Contact Details for Project Information
Bannerman Resources (Namibia) GM Werner Ewald, tel +264 64 416 200, fax +264 64 416 240 or email admin@bannermanresources-na.com.