Name and Location
Etango uranium project, 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 tonnes 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 of 100-million tonnes 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 and 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
Bannerman continues to investigate a financing model that will accelerate a commitment to the project development in a rising uranium price environment. The financing of projects typically requires the completion of a pilot testing programme to confirm the scale-up of the laboratory-level testing completed in a DFS.

The opportunity to progress the pilot plant programme, stemming from prior completion of the DFS, is a potential competitive advantage to favourably position the Etango project. The pilot plant 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.

To that end, Bannerman has reinitiated the process to gain the necessary environmental clearance for the pilot plant programme. An application was expected to be lodged with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism during February 2014.

Meanwhile, the internal review of the geological and resource models is almost complete. Work to date has highlighted the potential to increase the ore feed grade to the processing plant. The project optimisation work will progress to a review of the mine planning aspects of the DFS in the March quarter, which will include the potential to increase the ore feed grade. A decision on updating the mineral resource and ore reserve models will be deferred until this work has been completed.

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.