Modern Mining November 2022

According to Munro, uranium is currently trading at a spot price of around $50/lb with long-term asset holders in a position to negotiate a premium for long term contracts. “The uranium price will need to move higher than $50/t to incentivise most developers, including Bannerman, to develop their projects into uranium mines. We will need to be patient for a little while longer to ensure that the price we start writing into long-term contracts will generate sufficient returns to reward shareholders’ patience,” says Munro. Etango-8 in the starting blocks The uranium developer’s Etango-8 project, located in the Erongo Region of Namibia, 30 km South-East of Swakopmund, possesses a large-scale uranium mineral resource endowment of 207 mlbs of con tained U 3 O 8 . Following the completion of a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) on Etango-8 in August last year, which confirmed a strong technical and economic viability for a conventional open pit mine and heap leach processing plant for Etango’s 8 mtpa throughput, Bannerman will, over the next 12 months, focus on

the end of the decade. For investors, uranium is now regarded as an exciting commodity for exposure to both the clean energy and energy security thematic. And according to Munro, with a strong balance sheet and one of the largest undeveloped ore-bodies in the world, Bannerman is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the next clean energy wave. The ASX-listed uranium developer has been upgrading its flagship Etango project in Namibia since 2006, and benefitted from the last uranium bubble of 2007. This was a period highlighted by exponential growth in the price of natural ura nium, which began in 2005. When the commodity peaked at roughly $300/kg (or ~$135/lb) in mid 2007, Bannerman was quick to take advantage of the favourable situation to raise the capital required to take the project up the value curve. “The funds sourced during the boom were used for early-stage development of our project including over 300 km of resource drilling. And now that the project is close to being shovel ready, the markets have picked up in our favour,” explains Munro. But are market fundamentals sweet enough for Etango-8 development?

Aerial view of the Etango project.

Etango Demonstration Plant.

November 2022  MODERN MINING  21