Frage an die Uranexperten: Wie bewertet ihr die Uranvorkommen von Sibanye-Stillwater?
26.08
SIBANYE-Stillwater may separately list its uranium assets depending on studies the precious metals company is currently assessing.
The company said in an interim results presentation today that is was considering converting its ageing Beatrix West mine to uranium production as well as restarting uranium output from its Cooke tailings deposits west of Johannesburg.
“We could see an announcement over the next quarter,” said Neal Froneman, CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater, regarding the structure of its push into uranium. The company liked its 50.01% stake in DRDGOLD which housed its gold tailings retreatment business, he said.
Asked to clarify Froneman’s statement regarding externalising the uranium, Sibanye-Stillwater spokesman James Wellsted said: “It may be, yes. It depends on what makes the most sense from a value perspective”.
Details on the possible restructure of the uranium assets would be provided on the company’s investor day, scheduled for September 9.
Froneman today picked out uranium as part of the company’s ‘green metals’ push that included a concerted push into platinum group metals (PGMs) recycling that could also be extended into battery metals recycling.
In addition, the company promised to continue recent investments in battery metals production, currently focused on supplying the European lithium and nickel markets.
Beatrix West, which has about five years of gold production remaining, was originally known as Oryx. The mine was developed by Gencor in the Eighties at a then cost of R2.6bn in order to access the Beisa uranium deposit.
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09.03
Froneman added today at a presentation of the firm’s gold and ESG strategy that the retreatment of major uranium resources at its Johannesburg West gold operations by its 50.01%-owned DRDGOLD would be undertaken in tandem with the extension of Beatrix.
Niel Pretorius, CEO of DRDGOLD said his company intended to stay “in the slipstream” of Sibanye-Stillwater by moving into green metal and mineral retreatment activities.
For instance, the second phase development of DRDGOLD’s Far West Gold Recoveries (FWGR) project would encompass the retreatment of uranium slag, he said.
Design of FWGR was extensive enough to include uranium, but implementation would be “phased”, said Pretorius. Sharing of infrastructure over gold and uranium production would “dilute” the capital expenditure demands on the company, he said.
Uranium price hopes
The development of Beisa, and the diversification of DRDGOLD’s retreatment activities into uranium, would be supported by a burgeoning uranium price, said Sibanye-Stillwater.
“In terms of the uranium price, I think any metal that is part of the low- or zero-carbon emission base is going to be in short supply over 10 or 15 years,” said Froneman.
“There is such a shortage of these green metals. I predict very significant price rises for lithium and nickel, and uranium is part of those green metals. We are being very conservative talking $60 per pound ($/lb),” he added.
According to an article by Bloomberg News today, the uranium price was at its highest level since 2014 ($40.25/lb) owing to aggressive purchasing by Canadian investor, Sprott Inc which intended to corner the phyiscal market for uranium.
Said Froneman: “If you can produce the greenest uranium – and of course tailings retreatment is going to be very much part of that – you have a real edge. We are looking forward over the medium term to much higher uranium prices.”
grüße bh
