Sandwich Harbour in uranium sights

A JUNIOR mining company from South Africa has secured a huge financial injection to prospect for uranium near Sandwich Harbour, a fragile coastal wetland area south of Walvis Bay.

Manica Minerals, which is headed by a geochemistry professor who lectures at the University of Cape Town, has three exploration licences. In addition to Sandwich Harbour, one is north of Moewe Bay in the Kaokoveld, and the other is at Nakop, in the south-eastern corner of Namibia.Together, the three areas comprise about 500 000 hectares.Canadian company Pitchstone Exploration announced at the end of last week that it had signed an agreement to acquire a 51 per cent stake in Manica by incurring exploration expenditure of C$900 000 at the latest by November 9 2008.The Canadian company will also provide US$75 000 in cash within two years.”Pitchstone will have options to acquire an additional 20 per cent interest by expending a further C$1,4 million within four years of the date of the Letter Agreement,” the company’s Chief Executive Officer Ted Trueman said.On completion of a feasibility study, which might prove viable uranium reserves to be mined, Pitchstone will buy a further nine per cent of Manica.”Pitchstone can earn a total 80 per cent stake in the (three exploration) properties and also has the right to enter into an agreement with a third party at any time,” Trueman said in a statement.Namibia is the world’s fifth largest uranium producer.In 2005 it produced over eight million pounds of U3O8, (processed uranium).Production has primarily come from Roessing Uranium, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, since 1976.Namibia’s second uranium mine, Langer Heinrich Uranium belonging to Australian company Paladin Resources, started production last month.Manica Minerals is controlled by John Gurney, a professor of geochemistry at the University of Cape Town, and his mining engineer colleague, Dr Peter Hildebrand.Meanwhile, West Australian Metals has announced it has made good progress with more drilling on the farm Marenica, a few kilometres west of the Kleine Spitzkoppe in the Namib Desert, to assess uranium deposits.The area was targeted already in the 1970s by Gold Fields of South Africa, which drilled 2 000 holes.”The resource (area) contains around 18 million pounds of uranium,” the company’s Leon Reisgys, Technical Director and Acting CEO, said on Thursday.At present, more than 20 international mining companies hold uranium exploration licences in Namibia.In addition to Sandwich Harbour, one is north of Moewe Bay in the Kaokoveld, and the other is at Nakop, in the south-eastern corner of Namibia.Together, the three areas comprise about 500 000 hectares.Canadian company Pitchstone Exploration announced at the end of last week that it had signed an agreement to acquire a 51 per cent stake in Manica by incurring exploration expenditure of C$900 000 at the latest by November 9 2008.The Canadian company will also provide US$75 000 in cash within two years.”Pitchstone will have options to acquire an additional 20 per cent interest by expending a further C$1,4 million within four years of the date of the Letter Agreement,” the company’s Chief Executive Officer Ted Trueman said. On completion of a feasibility study, which might prove viable uranium reserves to be mined, Pitchstone will buy a further nine per cent of Manica.”Pitchstone can earn a total 80 per cent stake in the (three exploration) properties and also has the right to enter into an agreement with a third party at any time,” Trueman said in a statement.Namibia is the world’s fifth largest uranium producer.In 2005 it produced over eight million pounds of U3O8, (processed uranium).Production has primarily come from Roessing Uranium, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, since 1976.Namibia’s second uranium mine, Langer Heinrich Uranium belonging to Australian company Paladin Resources, started production last month.Manica Minerals is controlled by John Gurney, a professor of geochemistry at the University of Cape Town, and his mining engineer colleague, Dr Peter Hildebrand.Meanwhile, West Australian Metals has announced it has made good progress with more drilling on the farm Marenica, a few kilometres west of the Kleine Spitzkoppe in the Namib Desert, to assess uranium deposits.The area was targeted already in the 1970s by Gold Fields of South Africa, which drilled 2 000 holes.”The resource (area) contains around 18 million pounds of uranium,” the company’s Leon Reisgys, Technical Director and Acting CEO, said on Thursday.At present, more than 20 international mining companies hold uranium exploration licences in Namibia.