China's top nuclear utility buys 25% uranium mine.

China National Nuclear Corporation the country's leading nuclear value has bought 25% of Paladin Energy's flagship uranium mine, Langer Heinrich, in Namibia.

Through its wholly-owned auxiliary China Uranium Corp., CNNC paid $190 million for the stake. Under the agreement, the Asian company will be able to buy one-quarter of production at spot market prices. 

There is also an chance for Paladin to profit by securing extra long term off take planning with CNNC, at arm length market rates, from Paladin share of Langer Heinrich production," Paladin noted in a news release on Monday.

This growth also reinforces the import of Namibia in the global uranium mining context with the key Chinese nuclear organization now represent in uranium production in Namibia, Paladin wrote.

Completion of the deal is subject to Chinese regulatory approvals which are expected by mid-2014. In the interim, CNNC will pay a $20 million throwaway deposit to the Australia-based company. 

Langer Heinrich began produce uranium in 2007 and has undergone 2 stages of expansion. The action has a current design capacity of 5.2Mlb of uranium think per year and is targeting production on 5.7Mlb in 2014. 

Paladin will use the cash jab primarily to pay off debts. The Australian miner has been eager to discover a partner for the Namibian project for some time now. Last August the company lost 20% on its share price after it announced that talks with potential buys had failed; the company didn't think the offered price would appropriately reflect the strategic value of the asset.

On Monday, the company gained nearly 10% on the Toronto Exchange, trading at $0.60 per share. Over the past 12 months, Paladin has lost more than 50% of its value.

Iran could produce 90% uranium 'in weeks' Netanyahu Said

Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Iran is capable of converting low-grade uranium to weapons-grade within weeks.

Iran is prepared to give up enriching uranium to 20 % and therefore debate on this subject is unimportant, Netanyahu is office quoted him as saying at a weekly meeting of his cabinet. The main part stems from technological improvement which allows Iran to enrich uranium from 3.5 % to 90 % in a number of weeks.

Pressure on Iran, which continues enrichment while negotiating, must be intensified, the Israeli leader added Iran is nuclear enhancement programmed is at the core of its dispute with earth powers, who suspect it masks a drive for atomic weapons despite repeated denials by the Islamic republic. 

Iran is to hold a new round of talks on the issue with 6 world powers in Geneva on November 7-8.Israel has repeatedly warned against the so-called charm offensive of Iran is new President Hassan Rouhani, which led to direct talks between Tehran and the P5+1 countries -- United States, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany - in Geneva on October 15 and 16. 

The Jewish state, the Islamic republic arch-foe, has insisted there be no relief for Iran from crippling economic sanctions which brought it to the table in the 1st place.

Israel, the Middle East sole if undeclared nuclear-armed power, wants Iran to meet 4 conditions 

before the sanctions are eased: 

1. Halting all uranium enrichment

2. Removing all enriched uranium from its territory

3. Closing its underground nuclear facility in Qom

4. Halting construction of a plutonium reactor.

Netanyahu has said Israel reserves the right to launch unilateral military action against Iran if needed to stop it developing the ability to build a nuclear bomb.

5,000 Niger uranium miners against French

Thousands of protestors marched against French uranium miner Areva in the remote town of Arlit in Niger.

Areva has been working in Niger for more than 50 years with two sites, Somair and Cominak, presently producing, and its long-term deal with the government of Niger is up for renegotiation at the end of 2013.The roughly 5,000 protesters in Arlit were out in support of a Niger government audit to settle on how to better share out revenues from the 2 miners Reuter’s reports:

We are showing Areva that we are fed up and we're demonstrating our support for the government in the contract restitution negotiations, Azaoua Mamane, an Arlit civil society spokesman, said in an interview with a private radio station. We do not have enough drinking water while the company pumps 20 million cubic meters of water each year for free. The government must negotiate a win-win partnership, Mamane said.

The two mines together produce 4,500 tonnes of uranium for export to France and another project at Imouraren, which will be the biggest uranium mine in Africa, is set to start operations in 2015.The Somair mine was back to full production in August, after a suicide attack in May killed one worker and injured 14 in part shutting down mining.

Prices for uranium are languish at 8-year lows of $34 a pound and have not recovered since the Fukushima failure in Japan in 2011 despite more than 70 reactors being built around the world, 29 of them in China.

Once More Uranium Sags

It is not always easy to push a big order through an actively traded, exchange-listed market without having a sway on the price in that market. It is almost impossible in a non-exchange market which relies on asking for interest from the market itself.

Two weeks ago an institutional buyer was contemplate the purchase of one million pounds of U3O8 at spot, I imagine as an approximate trade, and hence disclosed its notice to the usual suspect. Word spread, and future sellers all backed off. The spot uranium price then bounced up as other buyers chased trades.

The irony is that not only did the price become too steep for the organization; its own share price fell as well. Hence, reports industry advisor Trade Tech, no deal.

Once again the floor was pulled out from under the spot market, and prices have responded accordingly. Some 800,000lbs of U3O8 equivalent did change hands in several dealings over the course of last week, but prices trended lower with each trade now that the seller are on the hop once more. TradeTech’s weekly spot price needle has fallen US75c to US$35.00/lb.

These fluctuations in the spot price are having their result on the term market. A number of utilities are looking to enter the term market for supply contracts, Trade Tech reports, but none appears in a huge hurry while price actions are unclear. No term transactions were report last week.

Lanzhou Uranium Enhancement Plant Opens to Media

Lanzhou's enrichment uranium support, where enriched nuclear fuel is extracted and reprocessed to be elated to China's nuclear power stations, has been opened to the media for the first time. The statement was made by the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) following the victorious industrial use of the domestic uranium enhancement centrifuge, which produces the fuel required by nuclear power stations.

Employees at the Lanzhou uranium enrichment base established that all devices at the facility, including the centrifuge, are made in China. The ability to make enriched uranium is one of the criteria used to judge whether or not a country is competent of carrying out nuclear tests. The centrifuge method is central to the process of uranium fortification. China's uranium enhancement process had formerly relied on the outdated dispersal separation technique, due to the difficulty of the centrifuge technique, according to a CNNC official.

Uranium Giants Sign $600M Contract- First Nation

Uranium giants Cameco and Areva have reached a $600-million deal with a Saskatchewan First Nation that supports their removal operations and drops a lawsuit over land near the planned Millennium project.

The joint agreement is with the English River First Nation, a group of more than 1,000 people who live on seven small reserves in the provinces northwest. Another 400 populace live off-reserve.

This is a little more certainty around project growth. If there is a lawsuit hanging over, you know that introduces a level of risk to the scheme. A formal signing observance is to be held Friday in the society of Patuanak, about 600 kilometers north of Saskatoon.

Most of the money is to flow to the First Nation over 10 years during contracts with band-owned businesses and earnings to band members, who are expected to work at the mines and on community progress projects.

There are also to be direct payments to the society for education, health, sports and leisure programs.

The international Market in Natural Uranium—from Propagation Risk to Non- Propagation Prospect

                                  

Uranium remnants a critical part of civil-military nuclear programs. The attempt to cap the number of nuclear armed states in the world has largely focused on restraining the spread of the industrial items and processes needed for the stages of the fuel cycle that can turn uranium into forms that could be used to build a nuclear weapon.

The most important suppliers of nuclear technology have recently agreed plan to limit access to the most reactive industrial items, in the framework of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Yet, the number of countries proficient in these manufacturing processes has increased over time, and it is now dubious whether a tactic based on close monitoring of technology choke points is by itself a dependable barrier to nuclear propagation. 

Today, the proliferation risks connected with industrial processes used to remove uranium attract comparatively little awareness. To reduce this risk, national regulators require having full picture of how uranium extracted on their country is to be used. Restricting access to natural uranium could be an imperative aspect of the worldwide efforts to block extends of nuclear weapons.