Vancouver — Paladin Resources (PDN-T, PDN-A) has entered the elite league of uranium producers with the successful commissioning of its Langer Heinrich mine in west-central Namibia.
Transition from the construction to operational stage was recently achieved marking what the company describes as “the first complete new conventional uranium mining operation to come into production in a decade.”
Brought online both on schedule and on budget, the Langer Heinrich uranium mine is producing yellowcake (U3O8). Paladin is working out some of the “teething problems” at the open pit operation enroute to ramping up production to the planned Stage 1 rate of 2.6 million lbs. of U3O8 per year by mid-2007.
The deposit hosts a measured and indicated resource of 37.1 million tonnes grading about 0.06% U3O8 or about 49.7 million contained lbs of U3O8 using a 0.025% U3O8 cut-off grade. An additional 43.4 million inferred tonnes averages 0.06% U3O8, equating to about 55.8 million contained lbs of U3O8.
Langer Heinrich is a calcrete-type deposit where valley-fill sediments occur in a Tertiary paleo-drainage system. The calcrete, or limestones, formed as chemical precipitates in an arid to semi-arid environment.
Uranium primarily occurs as carnotite, a secondary oxide mineral that also contains vanadium. Carnotite forms a thin film that lines cavities and fracture planes in addition to coating grains and forming disseminations in the calcretized sediments.
The deposit has over 15 km of strike, along paleo-drainages, with several higher-grade pods. Mineralization occurs at very shallow depths forming 1-to-30 metre thick horizons that are from 50-to-1,100 metres wide.
By 2009, Paladin plans a boost in production to the 3.7 million lbs. of U3O8 per year level. The mine has an estimated life of at least 17 years.
Shares of Perth-based Paladin have rallied since about mid-June, rising from the $2.80-level to a recent new high of $8.29 in TSX trading.
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