New cheer for uranium plays
Article Date: Jul 02 2009
Initial drilling by Forte Energy has revealed higher than expected levels of uranium
Forte Energy says its initial inferred uranium resource estimate at Firawa in Guinea is 11.6 million lbs at 296 parts of U308 per million.
The Western Australia-based company (formerly ill-starred Murchison United) says this figure is higher than expected and could be increased by further drilling. Managing director Mark Reilly says new testing results are imminent and fresh drilling will start after the rainy season ends in October.
He argues that Firawa has a lower grade but bigger intersections than Forte’s prospects in the Bir En Nar region of fellow West African state Mauritania. According to Reilly, Forte, listed on AIM and Down Under, expects to have a new formal resource estimate for Bir En Nar by the end of this year and has set a total inferred resource target of 60 million lbs of U308 there in two years.
As the revival of nuclear power fuels uranium developments around the world, French nuclear giant Areva has built a near-15 per cent stake in Forte and supplied technical data about the Mauritanian deposit, which it once owned itself. If Forte reaches certain minimum targets there, Areva can negotiate for a 25 per cent stake in a joint venture and fund a pre-feasibility study and then, if the stronger measured and indicated resource for Bir En Nar reaches 40 million lbs, the French group can buy up to 51 per cent and discuss an off-take agreement for its output.
Shares in Forte, which recently raised £5 million at the equivalent of 5p, have risen from 5.75p when Growth Company Investor highlighted them last month to 7.83p and could go further. Market watchers suggest uranium entrepreneur Stephen Dattels might have been following events closely.
Dattels is already involved in the saga of Kalahari Minerals, whose 40 per cent indirectly-held Rossing South deposit in Namibia continues to please the market. The company now says Zone 1 of Rossing South is showing a 34 per cent resource increase to 145 million lbs of U308 at 449 parts per million.
At 133.5p, Kalahari shares are well up on Growth Company Investor’s original 15p recommendation three years ago. They have scope for further improvement, if progress is maintained.
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