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Gold Fields considering Ux deal Posted: Thu, 01 Mar 2007 [miningmx.com] -- GOLD Fields is considering adding its name to the ranks of South African uranium producers, saying it may joint venture its Beisa uranium deposit. It may alternatively sell the uranium mine. “We’re looking into options where we can realise value," said Gold Fields business development manager for Gold Fields, John Munro. "This could be a joint venture, or we could sell it. There are all sorts of options.” DRDGOLD also said it would announce moving into uranium in a fortnight. It would mine currently mothballed assets, it said. Harmony Gold said last week is was considering selling uranium resources held in slimes dams near its Randfontein mine, west of Johannesburg, to Viktor Vekselberg's Renova Group in exchange for gold exploration prospects in Russia. The plan might see Renova Group build a uranium plant next to the Randfontein mine which has an estimated 124 million pounds of low-grade uranium in slimes dams. AngloGold Ashanti said in February that it might be one day feasible to develop a separate vehicle for its uranium producing assets. Neil Pretorius, MD of DRDGOLD's South African assets, said the company would soon announce its own uranium development plans. "We're going to make an announcement in the next two or three weeks. I don't really want to elaborate on that, but it's an exploration venture," Pretorius said. Speaking on the Moneyweb Power Hour, a week nightly radio programme, Pretorius said the uranium was in the group's existing portfolio. "But not the operating portfolio. Some of the old assets that have been discarded and almost forgotten," he said. In addition to these plans, two Toronto-listed uranium producers have their origins in South Africa's uranium reserves, sxr Uranium One and First Uranium. Interestingly, it was Beisa that allegedly put Brian Gilbertson, the mining supremo, off deep-level mining forever. Gencor closed the Beisa mine in 1984, two years after it was opened, at much expense. Its closure was forced by the collapse in the price of uranium oxide from $100/lb in 1984-dollar terms. The feasibility of Beisa was also ultimately unhinged by the accident at the Three Mile Island reactor in the US in 1979. This served to undermine social confidence in uranium. The Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine in 1986 entrenched the perception that nuclear fuel was unsafe. Click Here to subscribe to our daily newsletter
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