Name and Location
Husab uranium project, near Swakopmund, Namibia.

Client
Swakop Uranium is majority owned by China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC), following purchase of former owner Extract Resources in 2012. The Husab project is being developed by CGNPC subsidiary Swakop Uranium, in which Namibian State-owned mining company Epangelo acquired a 10% stake in November 2012.

Project Description
The Husab project, located in the Erongo region of central-west Namibia, currently ranks as the third-largest global uranium-only deposit and is comfortably the largest uranium deposit in Namibia. It has uranium reserves of at least 280-million tonnes, grading at 518 parts per million for 320-million pounds of contained uranium oxide (U₃O₈).

A definitive feasibility study, prepared on the basis of a low-risk conventional openpit mine over Zones 1 and 2 and delivered to the market in April 2011, has indicated that about 15-million tonnes of ore a year could be delivered to a conventional agitated acid-leach plant to produce about 15-million pounds of U₃O₈ equivalent a year. The current plan is to mine from two separate pits to maintain the 15-million-pound-a-year output over an estimated life-of-mine of 20 years.

Cementing its place as one of the largest resource drilling projects worldwide, Swakop Uranium has completed almost 800 000 m of combined reverse-circulation and diamond core drilling from April 2006, when the drilling programme started.

Value
Capital costs for the project are estimated at R20-billion, including the initial mine fleet, process plant and supporting infrastructure. 

Duration
The Husab mine should take about three years to build, which means that commissioning activities will start towards the end of 2015.

Latest Developments
Mining operations on Swakop Uranium’s Husab site, which will be the world’s second-largest uranium mine once in full production, will start in the first quarter of 2014, as scheduled.  The plan is to ensure that a run-of-mine stockpile will be ready for processing on completion of construction of the processing plant. 

The Husab project has secured buffer storages for water, so that the project can continue uninterrupted until the permanent water line is constructed and comes on stream. 

Owing to significant project ramp-up and increased demand for construction water in the year ahead, the project team used the Christmas break to mitigate the risk by filling newly constructed ponds. The new ponds have a joint capacity of 52 000 m³, roughly ten times that of the temporary pond.

Electricity from the NamPower grid was connected on February 3, through a 17 MVA mobile substation.  The Husab mine site will have up to 50 MVA by the end of the year through a permanent substation.

Construction of the permanent 21.6-km-long access road and the 60-m-long bridge over the Khan river is progressing well and the completion date is set for early April 2014.

Swakop Uranium has also confirmed plans to build a 500 000 t sulphuric acid plant at the mine.  Sulphuric acid is a key chemical used to recover uranium in an orebody.

Construction of the sulphuric acid plant will start in the second quarter of 2014.  The Husab mine is expected to use all the sulphuric acid produced at the envisaged plant. Additional acid, if needed, will be sourced locally or imported.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Husab Project Joint Venture, comprising Amec and Tenova Bateman (engineering, procurement and construction management contract); Gibb (bridge and road design); Basil Read Namibia (permanent access road); Wilson Bayley Homes-Ovcon, or WBHO (bulk earthworks for entire plant); Komatsu (haul trucks and support fleet); Barloworld Namibia (road shovels, hydraulic mining shovels and drills); Concor (contractors’ camp earthworks and infrastructure); Botes & Kennedy Manyano (temporary water pipeline and temporary access road); Conco (power transformers, Husab substations and mobile pit substations); Woker Freight (clearing, transport and storage of tyres), Lithon Project Consultants (construction supervision and engineering services for permanent access road), Access Laboratory ( site laboratory, blasting and excavations); Stefanutti Stocks (bridge piling works) and Synnergistics part of the SLR group (detailed design and construction supervision of the tailings storage facility, ongoing ground and surface water monitoring, and environmental system implementation, which includes environmental site officer support).

On Budget and on Time?
Yes.

Contact Details for Project Information
Swakop Uranium, tel +264 61 300 220 or email admin@swakopuranium.com.na.
Swakop Uranium project manager Rodney Voigt, tel +27 11 840 7365 or email rodney.voigt@swakopuranium.com.na.
CGNPC, fax +86 75 583 699900 or email cgn@cgnpc.com.cn.
Amec media contact, tel +44 7712 008356.
Tenova Bateman, tel +27 11 899 9111, fax +27 11 899 3905 or email enquiries@bateman.com.
Gibb, tel +27 21 469 9100 or fax +27 21 424 5571.
WBHO, tel +27 11 321 7200, fax +27 11 887 4364 or email wbho@wbho.co.za.
Komatsu, tel +27 11 923 1000 or fax +27 11 923 1303.
Concor, tel  +27 11 456 1000, fax +27 11 590 5409 or email info@engineering.co.za.
Conco, tel +27 11 805 4281, fax +27 11 805 1132 or email conco@conco.co.za.
Basil Read, Jenny Smith, tel +27 11 418 6466.
Lithon Project Consultants, tel +264 64 406 123.
Botes & Kennedy Manyano, tel +264 64 463 693, fax +264 64 406 701 or email bknamibia@botken.co.za.
Stefanutti Stocks, tel +27 11 571 4300, fax +27 11 571 4370 or email holdings@stefstocks.com.
Synergistics, tel +27 11 326 4158 or fax +27 11 326 4118.