Bannerman Energy CEO Gavin Chamberlain says they do not have any issues with construction water.
Chamberlain told Matthew Gordon of the Crux Investor that Bannerman Energy is ready, from a water perspective, to go into construction 100%.
Bannerman Energy is developing the Etango Uranium Project in the Erongo Region of Namibia, 30 kilometres southeast of Swakopmund.
The project possesses a world-class uranium mineral resource endowment of 207 Mlbs, which contains U3O8 (100ppm U308 cut-off).
Etango has benefited from extensive exploration and feasibility activity over the past 15 years, including detailed feasibility work on the large-scale development of Etango that culminated in the 2012 definitive feasibility study 2012 and the 2015 definitive feasibility study optimisation study.
The Etango mining licence application was granted in December 2023.
This critical milestone was followed swiftly by the commencement of early development works at Etango.
Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) studies and Control Budget Estimate (CBE) processes for Etango-8 were completed in June 2024.
Bannerman is undertaking early works construction activities for Etango-8 in parallel with offtake marketing and strategic financing workstreams.
Detailed design works for Etango-8 have also commenced, initially focussed on earthworks and civils.
These activities steadily culminate in a push towards a favourable final investment decision, market conditions permitting, targeted during 2024.
According to Chamberlain, the company has a separate pipeline significantly smaller than the main pipeline.
He said Bannerman Energy also has an agreement with NamWater.
“We pay for the litres of water that we use.
And effectively, there’s sufficient supply there to balance against the water that we require for both earthworks and concrete work,” he said.
Chamberlain added that they have sufficient construction storage on site to build up a day’s worth of storage for construction purposes.
He said Bannerman Energy is in regular contact with NamWater and Orano, the operator of the de-semination plant.
“At the moment, we have sufficient water to supply us during construction. And by the end of this year, there will also be enough water for the permanent water supply,” Chamberlain explained.
He said the company is prepared in case the desalination plant breaks down.
Based on the statistics from the last five years, Chamberlain said they have increased their storage capability on-site up to 10 days.
“The ten days are sufficient to supply the operations, not just the construction facts,” he said.
Chamberlain said the agriculture ministry is finalising a second de-semination plant.
He said the Cabinet had approved the joint venture between NamWater and Swakop Uranium.
“So, everything is a go for the second de-semination plant to be constructed in line with and commissioned before we even got into the final commissioning of our plot,” he said.
Etango construction progress
Chamberlain said the company completed the construction of the access road within budget and on time.
He also said the construction of the water supply pipeline was completed within budget and on time.
“We intend to award the same contractor in the bulk of the work suit. And there are a couple of reasons for that.
“It is in both of those contracts, which were recently completed, that we had no safety incident set at all.
“So, we maintained our LTR-free record. We have found that the company’s management seems to have a really good understanding of what we’re trying to achieve from both an environmental and a safety perspective while in construction,” Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain also said the Etango project differs from most other projects because most of the work is earthworks related.
He explained that the backbone of the project and the schedule are around the bulk of earthworks.
“By awarding this contract, we put another step in place to ensure we can still achieve our ultimate uranium plan in the market by 2027,” he added.
Chamberlain said the Etango site is vast and relatively well spread out, with a six-kilometre-long open pit.
Because of this, Chamberlain noted that a network of roads needs to be built to construct the different site areas.
Over and above, Chamberlain said, the critical area is the heap leach pad.
“We can produce uranium, vital for an extensive earthworks volume. So, the heap leach pad is critical to us,” he said.
Chamberlain explained that the third construction is the primary crusher, sunk into the ground.
“The primary crusher sits 10 metres below ground level and about five metres above ground level, and then we build a ramp up to it so you can tap into the primary crusher.
“But it’s a reasonably complex construction, and I’ve found in my history that these things are very often underestimated,” Chamberlain said.
He said if the primary crusher sits in a rock area, they have to blast the rock 10 meters down and then effectively blast a little slot into the rock to build the structure.
“When we do that blasting, it’s vital not to fracture the rock. Otherwise, we lose the stability of the structure,” he explained.
Chamberlain said the primary crusher would take a year from start to finish.
Powerline tender
Chamberlain revealed that Bannerman Energy is on the market, re-tendering the temporary power supply.
He said this is done so that by the time the earthworks are done, they will also have permanent construction power on site.
“We intend to award that contract in August and have it completed by the end of this year,” Chamberlain said.
The CEO said they have designed heat bleachers with a maximum height of five metres.
He spoke about Bannerman Energy having a dynamic bleach pad.
“Effectively, we have ten cells. So, at any given point, one of the cells is either being filled, latched, rinsed, or cleaned.
“So you always have eight of them in production, but you’re constantly moving along, and they’re in different stages of production,” he said, adding that they never have a heat bleach pad or a heat bleach that grows higher by the day.
“It is practical; we clean it and rebuild it.
It is always within five metres. So, in terms of safety and security from the perspective of the leach, we don’t see any
significant safety issues with the five-meter heat bleach pad,” Chamberlain said.
Budget
Chamberlain said they are doing the earthworks and have put contracts in place with the money in the bank.
He said they are doing the bulk earthworks and have put contracts in place to continue with the detailed design until the end of the year.
“What it does is secure a consistent team so that we don’t lose people in the consultants
to other projects,” he said.
All the contracts Bannerman Energy is placing now will be manned up, and it has already started to bring in the construction team supervision.
“Our plan remains the same, as we’re looking to FID by the end of this year. Effectively, we are also continuing to look at the actual physical contracting of the product,” Chamberlain said.
