SIBANYE-Stillwater hoped to conclude a deal on its South African uranium resources within three to six months, its CEO Neal Froneman has said.
Froneman said in March the company had fielded interest from Canada and Australia in a possible asset-for-equity swap or a trade sale.
Sibanye-Stillwater has about 32 million pounds of uranium contained in tailings at its mothballed Cooke operations west of Johannesburg and about as much underground at the Beatrix mine in the Free State.
“We have not been dragging our feet,” said Froneman in an interview last week. “We have mandated Greg Cochrane to engage with a number of parties and we are in that process exploring options,” he said. “I can’t say more but we hope to have something in three to six months.”
Cochrane, a former colleague of Froneman’s at Uranium One, was appointed head of uranium at Sibanye-Stillwater in March.
Sibanye-Stillwater has once before studied building the Beisa uranium mine at Beatrix, but was deterred over concerns about the price of uranium, which can be volatile.
Shares in uranium miners NexGen Energy, Cameco, and Denison Mines surged last week after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia should consider limiting exports of uranium as well as other commodities such as titanium and nickel in retaliation for Western Sanctions.
The metal has enjoyed fresh attention as a viable contributor to green energy supply, especially as renewable power growth takes time to ramp up. “We reiterate that nuclear power is the key winner from the global energy market disruption over recent years amid the desire for secure low-carbon baseload power,” said BMO Capital Markets recently.
The uranium price has recently slipped back from its $104 per pound high but it is forecast to remain at elevated levels compared to historic averages. “We don’t think it’s a bubble,” said Froneman of the uranium market. “It’s got long legs as a green metal,” he said.
During the presentation of Sibanye-Stillwater’s interim results presentation, Froneman said his company had completed a review of the Cooke tailings resource and planned to run a feasibility study next year.
“There is near term potential from a production point of view. It is an opportunity to use this asset to build a uranium business leveraging off Cooke’s low technical risk.”
