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Equinox president notes misinformation on uranium mining

Equinox president notes misinformation on uranium mining
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Wed 01 Sep. 2010, 15:10 CAT

EQUINOX Minerals Limited president Graig Williams has said there is a campaign of disinformation on uranium mining in the country. Equinox Minerals Limited is the parent company for Lumwana Mine which is currently stockpiling uranium mined as a by-product of copper.

So far, about 4.2 million tonnes of uranium has been stockpiled at Lumwana mine and exports are expected to commence in 2013 when international uranium prices make export of the energy metal used in nuclear reactors commercially viable.

In an interview at the cocktail held in honour of Equinox Minerals Limited board that visited the country, Williams said the uranium at Lumwana mine was being treated in accordance with international standards as well as set out guidelines by the Environmental Council of Zambia (ECZ).

“We are mining the uranium within the big copper ore body and the area is quite small,” Williams said.

“As we mine the copper, we also mine that uranium ore and stockpile it. We have designed the plant to extract that uranium…we are ready to start to produce uranium, we will put in place off-take arrangements as marketing arrangements. But for now the uranium price internationally is not sufficiently attractive but I would think that within two - three years, it should improve. So, at that time, we will seek the licence from the government to export uranium. We have a licence in place to mine and process uranium.”

Williams said mining uranium was not dangerous to the country’s environment or people living near the mine.

“We have recently heard in Zambia that mining uranium is dangerous…the fact is that the level of uranium we are mining is very low and so, environmental, health and safety risk is very low and we have very rigorous programme in place to ensure the safety of our people and the community. That is not an issue,” said Williams.

“I think there has been a campaign of disinformation on uranium that is not based on fact. The fact is that we have gone through a vigorous environmental approval by Environmental Council of Zambia and we have applied international standards and our project has got all that.”

With the current estimated ore body of 900 million tonnes of copper resource at Lumwana mine, uranium comprises about eight million tonnes.

And mines minister Maxwell Mwale said the government will not reintroduce the windfall tax on the mining sector to protect expansion and support the development of new mines.

“I would like to assure the equinox board that under the leadership of President Rupiah Bwezani Banda, there will be no windfall tax,” said Mwale. “We would like to see increased activity in the industry.”

Labels: EQUINOX, URANIUM

posted by MrK @ 3:46 AM