A military coup, massacre of civilians and the attempt murder of the coup leader is not what Forte Energy had in mind when it bought the human rights to dig for uranium in the West African state of Guinea. After a horrible 18 months, bullish Aussie chief in service officer Brad George reckons all bets are reverse on and uranium could be “next year’s gold”. The company was target a JORC-compliant resource approximation at Firawa when the president died and an opportunistic army officer took over. Within a year, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara had been shot in the head by the previous chief of the presidential guard.
Just three months earlier, soldiers loyal to Camara slaughtered 150 civilians protest at his predictable candidacy in elections. He hasn’t returned to Guinea, exit his old defence minister to organise the voting. Forte hopes all the problem is over and it can get back to business. Investors empty the company on the assumption it had lost the Firawa license, but Forte chiefs expect they may return when Guinea sort its act out. George told ShareCast the exploration season is receiving underway again and the source should be several times bigger. “We are back to prove it up,” he said. A pre-viability study is planned for 2011.
Thankfully, the climate is altogether more peaceful though considerably hotter in Forte’s other goal area Mauritania. It’s been granted nine uranium exploration licences there and more permit are awaiting approval. Good news is the politics is less exciting than Guinea and the government is “squeaky clean”. Bad news was the company struggle to get test results back in a credible timeframe. It would take months to send and receive information, which lost Forte reliability in the City. Now there’s a limited laboratory in Mauritania run by an Irish solid that claims it can do it in just a few weeks. Assay subject solved, says George, also a mining forecaster at Mayfair based finance house Matrix.
Just three months earlier, soldiers loyal to Camara slaughtered 150 civilians protest at his predictable candidacy in elections. He hasn’t returned to Guinea, exit his old defence minister to organise the voting. Forte hopes all the problem is over and it can get back to business. Investors empty the company on the assumption it had lost the Firawa license, but Forte chiefs expect they may return when Guinea sort its act out. George told ShareCast the exploration season is receiving underway again and the source should be several times bigger. “We are back to prove it up,” he said. A pre-viability study is planned for 2011.
Thankfully, the climate is altogether more peaceful though considerably hotter in Forte’s other goal area Mauritania. It’s been granted nine uranium exploration licences there and more permit are awaiting approval. Good news is the politics is less exciting than Guinea and the government is “squeaky clean”. Bad news was the company struggle to get test results back in a credible timeframe. It would take months to send and receive information, which lost Forte reliability in the City. Now there’s a limited laboratory in Mauritania run by an Irish solid that claims it can do it in just a few weeks. Assay subject solved, says George, also a mining forecaster at Mayfair based finance house Matrix.
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