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(last updated 17 Apr 2008)
The following companies are performing uranium prospection and/or exploration in South Africa:
Acclaim Exploration NL 
,
SXR Uranium One Inc.,
Simmer and Jack Mines Ltd,
First Uranium Corp.,
Uramin Inc.,
Yellowcake PLC ,
Brinkley Mining Plc ,
Western Uranium Pty Ltd,
Lonrho Africa Plc,
Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold Resources Ltd. ,
DRDGold Limited,
Mintails Ltd ,
Mineral & Mining Reclamation Services (Pty) Ltd
On Aug. 7, 2007, DRDGold Ltd announced 'encouraging' results from a recently completed drilling programme to define the uranium (U308) resource in its Blyvooruitzicht (Blyvoor) operation's slime dam material.
During the March quarter, 36 boreholes were drilled in Blyvoor's seven slimes dams, showing U3O8 concentrations in the range of 39 to 93 ppm [0.0033 - 0.0079% U]. Volumes of the slimes dams were surveyed and their total tonnage calculated at 107.7 million tonnes.
In addition, Blyvoor has sampled both its underground and slimes reclamation feeds over a period of 10 weeks. The surface feed averaged 0.073 kg/t U308 [0.0062% U], and the underground feed 0.070 kg/t U308 [0.0059% U].
Until 1981, Blyvoor extracted U308 as a by-product to its core gold production activities. It currently treats approximately 60,000 underground tonnes and 290,000 tonnes of surface material a month to recover gold.
On April 26, 2007, DRDGold Limited and Mintails Ltd announced that they had reached agreement on the formation of a joint venture company which is yet to be formed, in South Africa to explore, evaluate and potentially mine gold and uranium by opencast and underground mining methods in the Western Rand Goldfield of South Africa's Witwatersrand Basin.
The JV stakeholders DRDGOLD, Mintails SA (wholly owned by Mintails Limited) and Mineral & Mining Reclamation Services (Pty) Ltd (MMRS) have agreed to consolidate their West Rand Goldfield projects comprising Rand Leases, Durban Roodepoort Deep, East Champ D'Or, Luipaardsvlei and West Rand Consolidated (including West Wits). Initially, DRDGOLD and Mintails SA will hold 45% each in the JV and MMRS will hold 10%.
Uramin Inc. plans to build a uranium mine in the Karoo at a cost of $219 million (R1.6 billion). The company's new business and technical manager Keith Kenyon said that the Ryst Kuil project in the Karoo was likely to achieve an average output of 1745 tons a year of uranium oxide by the fourth quarter of 2009. (Business Report Mar. 30, 2007)
On March 13, 2007, UraMin Inc. announced that SRK Consulting (US) Inc. of Denver, Colorado has been appointed to undertake Consulting and Engineering Services for the completion of the Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS") for the Ryst Kuil Project (including the Ryst Kuil, Riet Kuil and Tanqua properties) in the West Beaufort area of South Africa.
Simmers plans an Initial Public Offering for First Uranium later this year. The listing would aim to raise up to C$75m, which would be enough to fully finance the Buffelsfontein tailings project. Simmers expects to ramp up uranium output to around 1.3 million lb [500 t U] by 2008. Buffelsfontein has about 45 million lb [17,300 t U] of measured and indicated resources of uranium in the tailings and there is potentially more at the Randfontein mine, according to chief executive Gordon Miller. (Reuters June 15, 2006)
First Uranium (Pty) Ltd has completed a mineral resource estimate for all surface tailings dams at the Buffelsfontein mine. The 283 million t of tailings contain 16,786 t U at a concentration of 0.0057% U and 2.8 million ounces of gold grading at 0.3 g/t. Initial results indicate a 15-year project life, with the potential to extract 4620 t U and 1.3 million ounces of gold from the tailings. (Simmer & Jack Mines, Limited, Jan. 24, 2006)
On Feb. 19, 2008, Simmer and Jack Mines announced that the full commissioning of the gold and uranium plant at its Ezulwini mine west of Johannesburg would be delayed for about a year, as a result of the slower increase in production due to the power shortages. The plants were originally scheduled to be commissioned January 2009, but would be delayed until January 2010. (Business Report Feb. 20, 2008)
On Aug. 13, 2007, First Uranium Corp announced, that to date, US$29.1 million has been spent on re-opening and re-furbishing the Ezulwini Mine. The shaft stabilization is on track for completion in September 2007 and the Corporation expects to commence hoisting ore in October 2007. The first uranium plant module is on track for completion in June 2008 to achieve an average annual production 888,000 pounds of uranium [342 t U] over the 18-year life of the mine.
Ezulwini Mining Company (Pty) Limited, has completed an independent Mineral Resource statement for its Ezulwini project, following the completion of phase one of a bankable feasibility study.
According to the first phase of the study, the project is financially viable and technically possible, putting the life of mine at approximately twenty years. Gold reserves are expected to offset significantly the extraction costs of the uranium deposits. Historically, uranium was mined from the Middle Elsburg section of the mine but the plant was decommissioned in the late 1990s following the collapse of the uranium price.
(Simmer & Jack Sep. 7, 2006)
Simmer and Jack Mines Ltd plans an IPO to raise funds to complete the first phase of the Randfontein project through its Ezulwini subsidiary and fund the second phase. The firm's board is due to give the green light for the initial phase of gold production later in June 2006 and a feasibility study to also mine uranium there in a second phase is due in September 2006, chief executive Gordon Miller said. (Reuters June 15, 2006)
On July 9, 2007, the first shipment of ammonium diuranate (ADU) was shipped from the Dominion Reefs Uranium Mine near Klerksdorp. ADU is a concentrate containing uranium which after calcining is converted into uranium oxide (U3O8). The shipment was delivered to the facilities of Nuclear Fuels Corporation of South Africa ("Nufcor SA").
On May 18, 2007, sxr Uranium One Inc. announced the production of the first ammonium diuranate (ADU) whilst commissioning the solvent extraction circuit at its Dominion Reefs Uranium Mine near Klerksdorp. The ADU will be further processed into U3O8 (yellow cake) in Nufcor's calcining plant.
Processing of underground uranium ore at its Dominion Reefs Uranium Mine commenced on schedule this week following the successful hot commissioning of the atmospheric leach circuit at the Dominion mill. (SXR March 1, 2007)
The South African Department of Minerals and Energy ("DME") has granted SXR Uranium One a new order mining right for the Dominion Uranium Project under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 2002. The mining right has been granted for an initial period of 30 years. The area covered by the mining right comprises approximately 14,000 hectares. (SXR Oct. 11, 2006)
In the last week of September 2005, Aflease CEO Neal Froneman presided over a small ceremony to clear the ground ahead of the construction of a new Rand 500 million [US$ 79 million] processing plant at its Dominion Reefs uranium mine near Klerksdorp. The plant is due to be up and running in the first quarter of 2007, when production is due to begin at Dominion Reefs. The plant is sited alongside Aflease's existing gold plant, and at full production, throughput capacity at the uranium plant is planned to be 210,000 tons a month, with expected recoveries in excess of 90%. (Aflease Sep. 30, 2005)
Harmony Gold has sold a 60 percent stake of a new company it formed to house uranium assets for $252 million to Africa's biggest private equity fund, Pamodzi Resources Fund , Harmony said on Dec. 19, 2007.
Harmony retains a 40 percent stake in the new company.
The new uranium firm will operate the Cooke Section of Harmony's Randfontein mine, 35 km south-west of Johannesburg.
Graham Briggs, Harmony's acting chief executive, said the new company would seek funds to build a uranium plant with an output of 500,000 tons of ore a month and a new gold waste site at a cost of about 1.7 billion rand ($245.2 million).
The plant would produce 185,000 pounds of uranium yellow-cake [71 t U] a month or 2.2 million pounds [846 t U] a year, at a cash cost estimated at $30-35 per pound. The yellow-cake would be exported, and there were no immediate plans for it to be enriched in South Africa, Briggs said.
Moreover, the reprocessing of various dumps within Cooke Section and Old Randfontein Section is planned, whereby "a significant amount of environmental rehabilitation will take place". The total amount of tailings at the site is 395.6 million t. The tailings dumps will be mined using high-pressure water cannons to re-pulp the slurry, which will then be pumped to processing plants and separated into gold and uranium using a leach process. (Harmony Gold / Reuters Dec. 19, 2007)
The venture will be known as Rand Uranium Co. (Bloomberg Apr. 17, 2008)
Mining company Harmony Gold is investigating the possibility of remining old tailings dams at its Randfontein operations, on the West Rand.
The project, which forms part of a larger venture that includes the remining and processing of 56 historic tailings dams at the company's operations in Randfontein, Evander and Welkom, all aiming to extract gold and uranium.
Harmony says in a statement that there are ten old historic tailings dams in the Randfontein area that are being considered as part of this project. The proposed operation will process about 400-million tons from the existing tailings dams at the Randfontein mining operations.
Approximately 2.5-million tons of tailings are expected to be mined each month, and the project is expected to continue for 12 to 15 years.
The mining operations will consolidate the residue tailings from the processing plant into one "megatailings" facility.
The project's megatailings facility will stretch over an area of 800 ha and will be 37 m in height. It will be able to accommodate 468-million tons of tailings over the life span of the project.
The project will consist of pipelines that will supply water to the mining areas and transport the slurry to the processing plant, where the gold and/or uranium will be removed from the tailings. The pipelines will also supply water for the processing plant, and the transportation of tailings residue to the new megatailings facility. These tailings will then be deposited at the megatailings facility, where the water will be collected for reuse.
Harmony has appointed Golder Associates Africa to conduct the environmental-impact assessment and the public participation process.
Once attained, the project construction is expected to start by the end of 2008, with full production in 2010.
(Mining Weekly Oct. 26, 2007)
Aflease Gold and Uranium Resources (AFL) announced that it had entered into an agreement in principle with Harmony Gold (HAR) whereby Aflease would acquire the right to mine, process and market all of Harmony's uranium in South Africa.
The resource that is included in the agreement is estimated to consist of 155 million pounds (lbs) of uranium oxide [59,619 t U] of high grade dump and tailings material, which could start producing uranium in about two years. A further 145 million lbs uranium oxide [55,772 t U] low-grade tailings has also been delineated as a future target.
The Harmony uranium deposits are situated predominately to the west of Johannesburg and in the Free State province.
(Business Day Feb. 3, 2005)
The project was terminated, after drilling results from several of the tailings showed that "the uranium resource fell short of expectations".
(Business Report May 26, 2005)
On Nov. 26, 2007, Mintails Ltd and DRDGold Ltd announced that they have secured the rights to 1.7 billion t of tailings and slimes dams in the East and Central Rand region of South Africa's Witwatersrand Basin for the recovery of gold, uranium, and sulfuric acid. The existing Brakpan ERGO recovery plant is to be refurbished to achieve an annual design capacity of 150,000 oz of gold, 660,000 lbs U3O8 [254 t U], and 855,000 t of sulfuric acid.
On July 4, 2007, Mintails Ltd announced that the total resource has been doubled to approx. 21 million lbs U3O8 [8,077 t U], 3.5 million lbs [1,346 t U] of which have been upgraded from the "inferred" to the "indicated" category.
On May 17, 2007, Mintails Ltd announced an inferred resource of 10.4 million lbs U3O8 [4000 t U] in the 285 million t of gold tailings owned by the company in the West Rands area.
Residents from the Wonderfonteinspruit area have raised concerns about the 300 million t Witfontein megatailings facility proposed by Mintails. The tailings dam is to cover an area of 3 km x 4 km at a height of 115 m. The facility is to receive the tailings from 15 existing tailings dams. (Beeld April 11, 2008)
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