Maybe the White House flap as to whether or not or not Saddam Hussein’s federal government tried to get uranium ore in the region of Niger was the best publicity Niger has had about its uranium creation for a lot more than two decades. How many geologists realize that the Republic of Niger ranks fourth, at the rear of Canada, Australia and Kazakhstan, in terms from the quantity of uranium annually made worldwide?
Named right after the river which runs by means of it, Niger generates almost four times the uranium currently mined in the usa. A lot more uranium is mined in Niger than in Russia, South Africa, India, China, Brazil, Ukraine Namibia or Uzbekistan. In truth, if you additional up the total quantity of uranium mined in South Africa, China, India, Brazil, Czech Republic and also the Ukraine for 2004, Niger would trump the combined manufacturing of those people six nations. Right up until Dr. Jon North came along, uranium mining was pretty very much monopolized by Cogema along with a consortium that includes Spanish and Japanese interests.
“This could be the fourth biggest uranium producer in the world,” raved an excited Dr. Northern into his cell mobile phone in the course of our taped interview. “Niger has in no way had an entrepreneurial and nimble junior mining business ever discover for uranium. And this is the initial 1.” North was talking about Northwestern Mineral Ventures (TSX: NWT; OTC BB: NWTMF) “Imagine if Australia, Canada and Kazakhstan having in no way had a junior company searching for uranium. It’s absolutely absurd to even think about the concept.”
The Republic of Niger supplies about 9 % from the world’s yearly production to meet the growing will need for uranium to fuel the world’s nuclear reactors. According to the IAEA-NEA Red Book of 2003, the sub-Saharan Niger ranked #4 behind Australia, Kazakhstan and Canada for total uranium reserves. Inside the 2005 update, it fell to seventh spot. It may possibly be that this country is under-explored. In 1981, Niger created a peak of 4366 tonnes of uranium. As with others, mining production plummeted using the spot cost of uranium throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The slump hit the nation hard simply because Niger depends upon uranium for greater than 30 percent of its exports, greater than $100 million. 5 percent from the country’s tax revenues arrive from uranium mining.
Dr. North discussed how he came to obtain concessions for both his organization, North Atlantic Means (TSX: NAC) and Northwestern Mineral Ventures, in which he serves being a director and helps guide geological colleague and president Marek Kreczmer. “I traveled close to the Sahara Desert twice on field trips having a neighborhood Niger geologist before I made a decision to utilize for permits. When I did this in 2004 using the minister of mines, he stated to me, ‘You know, you’re the initial individual to actually do this, as well as the only folks that have done this are vitality companies or governments.’ So, I informed him I would like to apply for two permits.” Northern obtained two for Northwestern Mineral Ventures and another for North Atlantic Means.
Salt Tectonics the Key to Uranium in Niger
Northern explained, “We selected the projects based on the geologic ingredients that we felt were essential within the manage and distribution in the uranium, such as, but not limited to, northwest trending fault corridors, northeast trending fault corridors, and inliers of stratigraphy which are popping up through younger parts from the stratigraphy.” Based on North, the salt structures are the important to acquiring uranium in the Republic of Niger. “The northeast and northwest faults, and also the inlier there, are all salt-related structures,” North remarked. An inlier is an region or formation of older rocks totally surrounded by more youthful layers. “For decades, the oilfield folks have understood, emphasized and completed investigation on salt, the deposition and then the movement of salt through stratigraphic sequences,” Northern pointed out.
Salt is very typical however it doesn’t final really lengthy in stratigraphy and it escapes, Northern explained. “When it escapes, it forms walls and diapirs (an anticlinal fold in which the salt has pierced with the a lot more brittle overlying rock).” Oil exploration geologists pay attention to these because they tend to form permeability barriers to oil and gas deposits. North is interested in them for any diverse purpose, “We noticed how the salt diapirs, where they escaped through the sequence in Niger, coincided with the distribution of uranium deposits.”
Uranium in the Republic of Niger is mined by open pit as a result of the sandstones. “These are redox deposits,” North noted. “They tend to be linked with reduced layers and structures, for example the former salt diapirs and faults in the stratigraphy. In the time, we didn’t actually understand why we have been doing that. We just knew there was an association with uranium deposits and these structures in Niger.”
That appears to possess made Dr. North’s job a walk inside the park, or within this circumstance, a walk in the desert. How do you inexpensively explore concessions of a couple of,000 square kilometers every? That is about 24 miles and 30 miles every, equally within the desert. “If you do the target selection carefully, and also you stick towards the salt diapirs, individuals actually narrow down the search,” Northern revealed. “When we do our initial multi sensor mag and radiometric survey, which will take place within the next couple of months, we will map out individuals structures and features, and search for radiometric anomalies linked with them. When we have that information, we’ll have at least 50 drill targets on individuals projects.” There appear to be no scarcity of drill targets about the concessions.
Without having that data, Northern believed he could have picked out ten higher top quality drill targets, just in the geology map. “They display up as circular bull’s eyes on geology maps,” North noted excitedly. “In the desert they show up as reduced hills. They’re topographic anomalies exactly where you might have about maybe 50 meters of relief. It is just a reduced rise since the desert is flat as piss on the plate.” North explained that you can drive anywhere by pointing your vehicle and stepping around the gas. “The only issues in your way are these really low hills, and those people hills are related to either faults or inliers (exposed older rocks surrounded by younger rocks).” Initial targeting comes straight from a topography map.
A Vote of Confidence on Existing Progress
But what about the availability of drill rigs for this project? North conceded there is a global shortage. But he shot back, “There’s a drilling organization in West Africa called West African Drilling services – and surprise! surprise! – I’ve been operating with them for your past four years.” Northern has already discussed moving a rig in with them. “Quite honestly, it’s actually not a large issue,” he stated. Neither is labor or the price of drilling. “We pay an all-inclusive price of approximately US$150/meter,” North told us. “Labor costs are really lower, about one-third the expense of North America. We use all neighborhood folks simply because that is what we do in Mali. You will find a lot of highly trained, skilled geologists in Niger.”
Clearly, Northwest Mineral Ventures is excited. “We are really pleased to be one of the very first Northern American firms to acquire exploration permits in Niger – a nation that has not been explored using modern techniques and has, right up until now, been among the world’s best-kept uranium secrets,” Northwestern’s Chairman and CEO Kabir Ahmed told Reuters in wire assistance story published in March.
Northwestern Mineral President Marek Krezcmer, who may be a geologist for more than thirty many years, seventeen of which had been spent exploring in Africa, was also enthused about the company’s prospects in Niger, “We know there’s uranium mineralization on the surface, determined by the operate which was accomplished by Jon Northern. I believe we can succeed. We’re going to locate uranium.” Kreczmer is familiar with geology in Africa and doing company on this continent. “I’ve worked in Tanzania, Zambia, Swaziland, Ethiopia and Eritrea,” mentioned Kreczmer. He was optimistic about developing Northwestern Mineral Venture’s uranium concessions, “Our company plan there is certainly to discover mineralization, and (have) most likely somebody like Cogema grow to be a partner of option.”
At Cogema’s seven open pit uranium mines which feed the Arlitt mill, the grades have run 0.three % with 2003 manufacturing at 1126 tonnes. In the two open pit uranium mines which feed the Akouta mill, grades have run at among 0.four and 0.five percent with 2003 manufacturing at 2017 tonnes. Krezcmer explained that Northwestern’s exploration licenses are valid for any period of nine years, three-year licenses which are renewable 3 times. The country’s mining act, based on Krezcmer allows Northwestern to utilize for a mining license, which may be granted for between 25 and 70 many years.
We were concerned with any political situations, but both Northern and Kreczmer assured us the region is stable. “When I very first went to Niger in November 2004, and that was throughout the last election, it honestly looked like a great deal of fun. Everybody had slightly piece of rag tied around their wrist or tied towards the antenna of the vehicle to represent their political affiliation.” Kreczmer added, “My encounter functioning in Africa is always that because this region relies so heavily on foreign aid, the World Bank has excellent influence.”
The Republic of Niger has North’s vote on confidence. He has worked for your past few a long time as Chief Executive of Northern Atlantic Resources, which hopes to develop its Kantela gold property in Mali. Niger and Mali and demographically and geographical identical, he informed us. Northern feels Niger is heading to turn out to be much more aggressive in building its uranium properties. He talked about how the President of Niger informed his minister of mines, “Get on the market and advertise Niger as becoming available for enterprise. We want people to appear in the following and invest. We want to give them mineral rights, and we want them to complete what Mali is performing.” In the seems of it, the initial to jump around the Niger bandwagon were Northwestern Minerals and North Atlantic Assets, but they will not be the final.
“My knowledge with Niger is that it is a peaceful, democratic region with no civil unrest. Let’s set it this way. They have much less civil unrest than France.” Ironically, French is one of several country’s official languages. “You gotta be reasonable, proper?” asked Northern. “The French not long ago stormed the Bastille in France, and they didn’t do anything like that in Niger.”
Just how exhilarated is Dr. Jon Northern? “The excitement in the industry is we do the airborne survey,” he enthused. “We find some radiometric anomalies that correlated inside inliers. We show the model. If that does not excite individuals, then I don’t believe their hearts are beating.”
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