Miner upbeat on pickup of uranium prices
Lotus Resources Limited, an Australian mining firm which owns Kayelekera Uranium Mine, says the pickup in uranium, though has note reached the desired levels for the firm, gives hope for the mine to soon resume operations.
The firm’s managing director Keith Bowes said in response to an emailed questionnaire on Wednesday in view of the firm’s exploration process and pick up in uranium process, the firm is positive on Kayelekera and if everything goes well, it would start refurbishing the mine in 2023 and start uranium production in 2024.
He said: “As Kayelekera is the only mine that Lotus Resources owns it means we could start to generate revenues and profits for our shareholders who up until now have provided all the money to keep the company and Kayelekera moving forward with care and maintenance, exploration and technical studies.
“For Malawi the restart of Kayelekera will mean jobs, training and education opportunities, taxes and royalties for the government, support for local communities and will be an important source of foreign currency for the country.”
According to Bowes, Lotus is already busy with exploration having completed a drilling programme at Kayelekera which resulted in the firm increasing its Mineral Resource Estimate from 36.5 million pounds uranium (U3O8) to 46.3 million pounds of uranium.
“We also recently completed an exploration drill program at our Livingstonia exploration licence area and expect to be able to provide results of this program shortly. Our drill rig is currently at our Chilumba exploration licence drilling some uranium targets we identified from historical work undertaken by the previous owners.” he said.
On September 1 2021, government renewed a mining license for the firm, and is valid for 15 years.
Karonga Diocese Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) desk officer Louis Nkhata, whose institution has been closely following events at Kayelekera Uranium Mine is on record as having said they expect locals to benefit from the project this time.
The Kayelekera mine, whose emergence boosted economic prospects for Malawi, was opened in 2009 and produced 10.9Mlb between 2007 and 2014.
Meanwhile, uranium prices have surged to its highest level since 2014, currently at about $60 (about K49 380) per pound.
On the other had, analysts have projected uranium price to reach multi-year highs, as nuclear interests may be back on the table.
But Bowes was quick to mention the restart of the Kayelekera operation is dependent on a number of factors with the uranium price.
“Prices are getting close to the levels where we could make the decision to restart. We also need to complete our technical studies so we have all the information to determine how much money we need to spend to refurbish the plant and to understand how much it will cost to operate the mine,” he said.
Kayelekera Uranium Mine, Malawi’s biggest mining venture to date, was placed on care and maintenance in February 2014 following the tumbling of global uranium prices in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, which forced the closure of nuclear power plants across the world.
Prior to this, uranium prices hovered around as high as $73 (about K60 152) per pound and were expected to increase overtime, but the price nose-dived to a record low of between $20 (about K16 480) to $25 (about K20 600) per pound.
