Chinese company bids for uranium junior

The Perth-based uranium junior the past announced the 61c-a-share bid and said it strongly opposed it because it sees the go as timed to take advantage of the company's low share price that has been driven downward by negative sentiment following Japan's nuclear crisis.

Hanlong's bid is to secure manage of Bannerman's two uranium interests in Namibia, with its flagship Etango project situated close to Rio Tinto's massive Rossing mine.Bannerman said that the company had been undertaking a procedure to identify a suitable joint venture partner to facilitate the financing, development and process of the Etango project.

"As part of this process, Bannerman has been in discussions with a number of huge and well-funded parties," it said."As part of its proposal, Hanlong is looking for a three-month period of exclusivity. Bannerman has determined that it is not appropriate to grant Hanlong exclusivity given the nonappearance of agreement on price and the conditionality of the proposal."

Japan faces long recovery from Fukushima accident

The worst may have passed in the most horrible nuclear accident since Chernobyl, but cleaning up when it's finally over is likely to get decades and cost Japan an untold fortune. A six- to nine month horizon for winding down the disaster, laid out by plant owner Tokyo Electric Power this week, is just the beginning. Near the end of that timeline, Japan's government says it will make a decision when or whether the nearly 80,000 people who were told to flee their homes in the early on days of the disaster can return. Friday marks six weeks since the March 11 magnitude-9.0 earthquake and consequent tsunami that triggered the crisis.

Some of those who have already spent six weeks in emergency housing, like Tomioka funeral director Kazuhiro Shirato, say they do not guess to return to what was home. "I have been told by TEPCO since I was very small that the nuclear power plant was safe, so I never imagined this would occur," Shirato told CNN. "I hope now that the entire town will move to another place and rebuild." Many of those displaced by the disaster have spent a month living in government shelters occasionally just gyms and are running low on money. Tokyo Electric has promised to make a down payment on compensation of 1 million yen (about $12,000) per household, with the meaning of sending out checks by late April.

Another 66,000 have been told to plan for evacuations in towns where radiation readings are at levels that could increase the long-term risk of cancer for anyone who stays. That will definitely add to what is likely to be a staggering tab for the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric, the country's biggest utility. "We are mobilizing our resources in order to tackle the situation, to ease the burdens on those people who have evacuated from the area," Cabinet spokesman Noriyuki Shikata said. "We recognize that it's going to cost a quite important amount. But at this juncture, I do not believe we have come to a specific kind of budget size."

Uranium Energy Says Quake response Means World Shortfall

Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC), a U.S. miner and processor of the nuclear fuel, said global supply will fall short as exploration investment is shortened following the Japanese nuclear crisis. The Global X Uranium ETF (URA), which track uranium-mining companies, has fallen 21 percent since March 10, the day before Japan’s strongest earthquake on proof and a tsunami triggered explosions and radiation leaks at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant. Australian uranium miner Mantra Resources Ltd. last month decided to a 12 percent cut in the capture offer from Russia’s state-owned Rosatom Corp. because of the crisis.

Annual uranium use surpass production by 50 million pounds following the damage done to Fukushima, said Amir Adnani, chief executive officer of Corpus Cristi, Texas-based Uranium Energy. “Because of Fukushima, because of the reaction, the knee- jerk reaction, the expansion is not going to occur at an adequate pace to fill the current deficit and meet growing demand,” Adnani said in an April 13 phone interview from London. Uranium Energy rose 6 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $4.09 as of 4:15 p.m. in American Stock Exchange trade. The shares have drooping 13 percent since the earthquake.

Still, Adnani said he doesn’t expect a negative impact on Uranium Energy because its Palangana mine in Texas started production in late November. “Everything we had to do to start production was finished before Fukushima and what seems currently to be a tougher environment,” he said. The price of U3O8, the deal form of uranium, declined 14 percent since the earthquake to $57.50 a pound, according to data from MF Global Holdings Ltd. Nuclear power offer for about 20 percent of U.S. electricity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.