Valencia

The Valencia uranium project covers an area of 735.6 ha located in central-western Namibia.

An open pit mining operation is proposed for the project. Preliminary studies have defined a mining reserve of 116.8 Mt grading 0.119 kg/t U3O8. Total waste movement over the mine life will total 122.4 Mt. The final pit will be 1,400 m long, 700 m wide and 360 m deep. A processing rate of 1,083,000 t of ore per month over a 10 year mine life is envisioned.

The metallurgical flowsheet consists of batch atmospheric leaching followed by ion exchange (CIX) and solvent extraction (SX). The processing stream will utilize radiometric ore sorting to reduce the amount of below cut-off material treated.

The final process design will also deal with issues such as dust control and water conservation. Valencia mine site will be linked through a water pipeline to the Rossing terminal and through a 27 km private industrial road to the Trans Kalahari Highway.