The Kayelekera mine produced more than 10.9MIb of uranium between 2009 and 2014 with a significant high grade resource estimate
Image: The Kayelekera Uranium Project is located in northern Malawi, southern Africa. Photo: Courtesy of rawpixel from Pixabay.
Hylea Metals (HCO) has signed an agreement with Paladin Energy to acquire a 65% interest in the Kayelekera uranium project in Malawi.
The remaining 35% interest is held by its joint venture partner Chichewa holding 20% and the Government of Malawi owning 15%.
HCOP is provided with an option to acquire a further 20% interest in Kayelekera from Chichewa Kayelekera, which hosts a high grade resource with an existing open pit mine.
The Kayelekera mine produced more than 10.9MIb of uranium between 2009 and 2014 with a significant high grade resource estimate.
The Kayelekera project has showed excellent metallurgical recoveries (87.5%) and is equipped with infrastructure already in place including a 3Mlb per annum resin in pulp extraction plant with all assets maintained in good standing.
Uranium mineralisation at Kayelekera is hosted in several arkose units, adjacent to the eastern boundary fault zone, formed in tabular bodies restricted to the arkoses, except where it is adjacent to the NS strand of the Eastern Boundary fault at the eastern extremity of the pit.
HCO managing director Simon Andrew said: “The acquisition of 65% of Kayelekera is an excellent opportunity for HCO. Kayelekera is a world class uranium asset that has produced over 10.9MIb of uranium and represents an opportunity to use the past production information to re-engineer certain mining and processing processes in order to reduce the overall Capex and Opex of the operations. \
“We are optimistic about the global uranium market and the outlook for firmer pricing.”
Kayelekera uranium project is owned through a holding vehicle, Paladin Africa
The project is owned through a holding vehicle, Paladin Africa which also holds five exclusive prospecting licences (EPL) other than Kayelekera.
HCO said that Paladin has permitted, constructed, commissioned and operated Kayelekera between 2007 and 2014 and produced 10.9Mlb of U3O8 from an open-pit mine ore processed through an acid leach and resin-in-pulp processing plant
In addition, Paladin has placed Kayelekera on care and maintenance in February 2014, due to the low uranium pricing, and the internal studies determined that an improved uranium market would provide an opportunity for Kayelekera to restart and again produce uranium from its remaining resource.