Trekkopje ramp-up put back

Thursday, 3 February 2011 [Bloomberg, 1 February] Areva's Trekkopje uranium project in Namibia is not now expected to reach full capacity until 2013, not 2012 as initially envisaged. The complexity of the $1 billion venture has been cited as a reason behind the delay. The ore at Trekkopje has very low uranium content, and the challenging project will be the world's first uranium mine to use a sodium carbonate/bicarbonate heap leach process. Some 100,000 tonnes of rock per day will need to be processed to produce the planned output of 3000 tonnes of uranium per year.