Lessons from the past
The DRC Namibia
Africa has been a significant world producer
of uranium since the 1920s following the
discovery in 1915 in the DRC (then the
Belgian Congo) at Shinkolobwe, 25km west
of Likasi in Katanga, by Union Mieniére
du Haut Katanga. The Société Générale
Métallurgique de Hokoben began extracting
uranium, which is used for the medical
treatment of certain cancers.
Following a brief closure in 1937,
Shinkolobwe was reopened and the United
States government purchased about 3 000
tonnes of uranium (tU) for the Manhattan
Project in the early 1940s. About 25 000tU
was produced over the subsequent two decades
from this vein-hosted deposit, but production
ceased on independence in 1960, when the
shafts were sealed and guarded.
The deposit has been unofficially mined
since 1997 for cobalt, although a United
Nations report in 2004 prompted concerns
that some uranium from Shinkolobwe might
be contributing to illicit weapons programmes
in some countries. In 2009, Areva signed a
uranium exploration agreement for Katanga
with the government, focused on Shinkolobwe,
but has since said that it will not embark on
any plans for mining in the near future and
there is no current mining or exploration for
uranium in the DRC. Granite-hosted uranium mineralisation was
first noted in Namibia in the early 1920s
close to the Rössing Mountain. Rio Tinto
discovered numerous uranium occurrences
and in 1966 took the rights over the low-
grade Rössing deposit, 65km inland from
Swakopmund, and a mine has been in
operation there since 1976.
Two other significant deposits found in
early exploration in Namibia were Trekkopje,
a calcrete-hosted deposit 80km north-east
of Swakopmund, and Langer Heinrich, a
calcrete-hosted deposit discovered in 1973
by Gencor, 80km inland from Walvis Bay
and 50km south-east of Rössing. More
recently, several primary-hosted deposits
have been developed, including the world-
class Husab deposit.
www.miningmirror.co.za
Niger
In Niger, uranium was discovered at Azelik
in 1957 by the French Bureau de Recherches
Géologiques et Miniéres (BRGM), who were
looking for copper. Further discoveries were
made in the late 1950s and 1960s, including
Abokurum (1959), Madaouela (1963),
Arlette, Ariege, Artois & Tassa/Taza (1965),
Imouraren (1966) and Akouta (1967). On
the basis of these discoveries, Niger’s uranium
industry was founded in 1968, with the first
production from Arlit in 1971. Capacity was
expanded to 2 100tU per year in 1981 and
at its peak in the 1980s, 40% of the world’s
uranium production came from Arlit, and
uranium represented 90% of Niger’s exports by
value. In 1981, production was cut by half and
in the late 1980s, Arlit suffered from a steep
decline in world uranium prices. The value of
Niger’s uranium ‘boom’ has never recovered to
its 1980s level.
South Africa
In South Africa, uranium production began in
1951, peaking in 1959 when 26 mines, feeding
17 plants, supplied 4 954tU. This material was
exported for the nuclear weapons programme
but with its curtailment, output was reduced
until the world oil crisis in 1973, when
uranium production resumed as a source for
nuclear energy. By 1980, 20 mines produced
6 000tU. The price slump in 1980 led to
reduced output and by 1994, only three
producers remained.
Source: Special issue of Episodes – Journal of
International Geoscience: The Great Mineral
Fields of Africa vol. 39 No. 2, June 2016. From
the article by Kinnaird, J. A. & Nex, P. A.
M. Uranium in Africa. School of Geosciences,
University of the Witwatersrand.
MARCH 2019 MINING MIRROR [35]