Australian uranium deposit sale completed
12 August 2008
Cameco and Mitsubishi have completed their joint acquisition of the Kintyre uranium deposit in Western Australia from Rio Tinto for $495 million. Canadian uranium miner Cameco now has a 70% interest in the deposit, with Mitsubishi Development Pty, an Australian subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp, holding the remaining 30%. Cameco says it will operate the project, where Rio Tinto identified uranium reserves (not JORC-compliant) of 24,000 tonnes U3O8 and inferred resources of 12,000 tonnes U3O8 at relatively high grades in 1988. Rio Tinto has sold the deposit as part of plans to divest some $10 billion of assets in 2008 following a strategic portfolio review in the wake of its acquisition of Alcan in 2007. According to the company, options are now being explored to divest its Sweetwater uranium assets in the USA, despite saying earlier in the year that it had withdrawn Sweetwater from sale while it reconsidered its options.