Koreans eye local uranium production

MBONGENI MGUNI
Staff Writer | Friday July 2, 2010 00:00

The Project's developer, A-Cap Resources, recently inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the Korean Resources Corporation, a parastatal whose mandate is to develop domestic and international mineral resources.

According to A-Cap officials, under the MoU, KORES will 'probe the potential to participate in the development of the Letlhakane Project, by itself or with the involvement of other Korean companies.'

This week, senior A-Cap officials told the Resource Sector Conference that there was potential for Korean off-take of Letlhakane's production, supply agreements being key to securing capital expenditure and a mining licence from the Government of Botswana.

'We have signed an MoU with KORES to talk about the possibility of a partnership and that's a great step for us because it shows that they have given us a big tick for the potential of this project to supply their nuclear needs,' said A-Cap's Steve Groves.

'It's certainly a big step for us.'

KORES officials visited the Letlhakane project site early in June, as part of their probe. Following the probe, the Korean parastatal typically provides low interest recourse loans; it is presently conducting similar analyses in 21 other countries and has a loan book of more than US$2.3 billion (P16.1 billion). A-Cap will be required to submit various geological, technical and financial indicators for the Koreans' assessments.

Meanwhile, a resource development programme scheduled to commence, could double the resources A-Cap holds in its 7 000 square metre prospecting area. Previous drilling programmes dating back to 2007 have vastly increased uranium resource estimates at A-Cap's 10 prospecting licences.

'By December 2007, we estimated a resource of 20 million pounds, then last June we estimated 98 million; in November, further drilling led to an estimate of 158 million pounds. 'The evidence is that we can double this resource very quickly and we have a resource growth drilling programme set to get underway,' said Groves.

Other technical aspects such as annual mining rates and uranium production, capital expenditure, processing options and background radiation studies are being assessed in the ongoing Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS).

Groves revealed that the BFS would be completed mid-2011, allowing A-Cap to apply for a mining licence. Construction and production are set for the end of 2012.