[miningmx.com] – SIBANYE Gold said it would increase the profitability of its Cooke section after dispatching the first uranium by-product – ammonium diuranate (ADU) – from the Ezulwini plant.
“The revenue derived from this uranium by-product will be offset against costs, lowering the total cost of producing gold from the Cooke operation,” said Neal Froneman, CEO of Sibanye Gold in a statement to the JSE.
“As both gold and uranium production rises in the next 18 months, we anticipate a decrease in costs and increase in profitability,’ he said.
Uranium oxide production from Sibanye’s Ezulwini plant is forecast to build up to approximately 600,000 pounds per annum, by the end of 2016.
“Sibanye remains positive on the longer term outlook for the uranium price and is currently exploring ways to secure more attractively priced longer term uranium contracts to limit its exposure to the weak prevailing spot uranium market’, said
Froneman.
Sibanye has 795 million tonnes of surface tailings on the West Rand, containing 7.1 million ounces of gold and 115 million pounds of uranium.
The ADU was shipped to Nuclear Fuels Corporation of South Africa where it was calcined to form Uranium Ore concentrates.
