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EXTRACT ASX EXT on the way to 500m pounds of Uranium

November 7th, 2009

From the 2009 Annual report

JORC compliant global resources of 292Mlbs U3O8 (Rossing South + Ida Dome)

Indicated and inferred from Rossing South of 267M U3O8 Jorc compliant plus the company announced an exploration target for areas not included in the current resource estimates. From these additional areas the company had set an initial target in the range of 185-285 Mlb of U3O8.

Again from the annual report: With the new zones of mineralisation emerging our resource target of 500mlbs U3O8 from the current drilling program is within reach.

The image puts it all into perspective:
nambia-uranium-by-metal

Accident at BHP's Olympic Dam will curtail Uranium output for ~ 6/12

October 21st, 2009

Lots of stories about BHP’s major accident involving the semi destruction of it main mine shaft by a couple of rogue skips that damaged the lifting mechanism, the overhead fly-wheel as well as the shaft itself are now in the media.

BHP now has to rely on a much smaller secondary shaft to bring mined material to the surface… consequently BHP has declared force majeure – a declaration of not being able to supply to its customers due to circumstances beyond its control.

This coupled with ERA’s problems has lead to a situation where emerging uranium producer Paladin has risen markedly. Another likely to benefit is Australia’s Extract ASX:EXT that is proving up a multimillion pound deposit that some say will reach 500m pounds of uranium at quite exciting grades in Namibia. Paladin is of course just about to produce substantial uranium and consequently well placed as seen by its share price rise over the last few days.

Namibia is a uranium hot spot with several Australian compnaies having major uranium prospects and projects underway. These include BMN, TOE, EXT, DYL.

Below is a story from Reuters….

Uranium miners’ shares leap on Olympic Dam force majeure
By Cameron French of Reuters
TORONTO – Shares of uranium producers have raced higher, as an apparent declaration of force majeure at the massive Olympic Dam mine in Australia suggested uranium prices could jump.

Shares of Canadian uranium major Cameco Corp climbed more than six per cent, while those of other international producers climbed between seven per cent and nearly 10 per cent.

According to The Australian newspaper, mine owner BHP Billiton plans to advise copper and uranium customers the mine will be down for an extended period because of damage to equipment at the main shaft earlier this month.

The mine produces about 4,000 tonnes of uranium annually, which accounts for a bit less than 10 per cent of global mined production. The damaged Clark shaft handles about 80 per cent of Olympic Dam’s production capacity.

Such a loss of production would be expected to drive up prices in the thin uranium spot market as BHP’s customers would have to seek alternative sources of supply.

“It looks like the market’s assuming the worst,” said Simon Tonkin, an analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners Canada.

Weekly spot prices UX- were last calculated at $US46 a pound, according to Reuters data.

Late in the session, Cameco shares were up 6.7 per cent at $C32.48 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, after touching a year high earlier in the session.

Australian-based Paladin Energy was up 9.7 per cent at $C5.10 on its Toronto listing, while Uranium One , which is focused in Kazakhstan, rose 7.5 per cent to $C3.31, and Denison Mines surged eight per cent, to $C1.90.

In the options market, the volume on Cameco was six times the average daily turnover with about 16,000 call options traded at mid-afternoon. This was seven times the number of its puts, according to option analytics firm Trade Alert.

Call options let investors buy a company’s shares at a fixed price within a specified time period, while put options are options to sell.

BHP is expected to provide an update on damage to the mine on Wednesday in Australia.

In addition to the uranium production, analysts have estimated the global copper market stands to lose up to 50,000 tonnes of supply this year due to the incident.

Extract resources now one of biggest new uranium finds worldwide

July 2nd, 2009

This has been a wonderful story and it seems to be getting better all the time.

Excerpt from today’s Miningenews.net
Extract grows Rossing South again
Kate Haycock
Thursday, 2 July 2009

EXTRACT Resources has increased the resources at its flagship high-grade Rossing South project by 34% to 145 million pounds of uranium, firming the deposit’s position as one of the biggest new uranium discoveries in the world.
It has been a tough year for the company with corporate raids from the United Kingdom and an attempted board ousting that has ended with managing director Peter McIntyre resigning from his position.

Despite the boardroom drama, Extract has continued to push ahead with exploration at its flagship Rossing South project.

The resource upgrade announced today has upped resources at Rossing South to 145Mlb of uranium at a grade of 449 parts per million uranium.

The overall estimate includes an indicated resource of 21 million tonnes at 527ppm uranium for 24Mlb uranium, and an inferred resource of 126Mt at 436ppm uranium for 121Mlb uranium.

Perth-based Extract said Rossing South was proving itself as the highest-grade granite-hosted uranium deposit in Namibia.

The next step for the company is to define a resource at the Zone 2 area, with the resource due in August.

The project has attracted a great deal of interest, with Rio Tinto buying into the company last year, and the corporate drama from UK companies Kalahari Minerals and Polo Resources proving Extract has attracted a lot of attention.

(IMO BMN will soon be shown to have a similar resource.)