History
Paladin acquired Langer Heinrich Uranium (Pty) Ltd. and its assets from Aztec Resources Ltd. (formerly Acclaim Uranium NL) in August 2002.
1973
The General Mining Union Corporation Limited (Gencor) discovered the deposit after a government-sponsored airborne radiometric survey.
1980
General Mining Union Corporation Limited (Gencor) undertook extensive evaluation work at the site from 1974 to 1980. Suspends work on the project in the mid-80s following a fall in the prevailing uranium price.
1998
Acclaim Uranium NL acquires the project from Glencore, completes a pre-feasibility study, and puts the project on hold again due to prevailing uranium prices.
2002
Paladin Energy acquired Langer Heinrich Uranium (Pty) Ltd. in August and its assets from Aztec Resources Ltd. (formally Acclaim Uranium NL).
2007
Langer Heinrich commences production with a capacity of 2.7 mlbpa.
2008
Construction of Stage 2 expansion to 3.7 Mlbpa commences at the mine.
2009
Langer Heinrich reaches Stage 2 design capacity in December.
2010
Construction of Stage 3 expansion to 5.2 Mlbpa commences early in the year.
2012
Stage 3 expansion will be completed at the end of March.
2014
The sale process for a 25% interest in the mine by CNNC was completed in July.
2015
Process innovation focuses on the Bicarbonate Recovery Plant (BRP), which was commissioned in early March and resulted in significant reagent cost reductions.
2016
With the continued decline in uranium prices, Langer Heinrich introduced a mining curtailment strategy in November.
2018
Paladin places Langer Heinrich mine into care and maintenance in May due to the sustained low uranium spot price. Mine successfully transitioned to full C&M in August.
2019
Paladin commences a feasibility study in February to further refine and verify the Langer Heinrich mine restart plan.
2020
Paladin completes the Langer Heinrich Restart Plan, providing a clear pathway back to reliable production and re-engaging with its long-term customers in an improving uranium market.
2022
Paladin decided to return the Langer Heinrich Mine to production, supported by solid uranium market fundamentals and continued progress on marketing activities.
2023
The Langer Heinrich Mine restart project is well advanced and remains on track and within budget for the first production in Q1 CY2024.
Langer Heinrich Mine’s return to production is guaranteed, with a budget of US$118 million for the first production in the first quarter of 2024.
The mine will start with more than 300 workers.
The mine is projected to produce over 77 million pounds of U3O8 in the future.
Langer Heinrich contains measured and indicated resources of over 120 million pounds of U3O8 at an average grade of 426 ppm U3O8.
Approximately 22 Mlbs of this is ore in stockpiles, which Paladin intends to process in the first year of Langer Heinrich’s restart before mining new ore in year two.
Paladin expects Langer Heinrich will produce 6 Mlb p.a. at peak production in seven years, and it should operate for 17 years at current resources.
The all-in-sustaining cost is US$27.40/lb (compared to BHP, US$27/lb; Nexgen, US$7.58/lb; and Boss Energy, US$25.68/lb).
In Langer Heinrich’s first phase, Paladin forecasts it could account for as much as 4% of the global uranium supply.
Offtake agreements are in place for 48% of estimated production, while approximately 90% of the life of mine production remains exposed to market-related pricing (i.e., being able to take advantage of a higher uranium price).
Breakdown of Langer Heinrich Mine expenditure
- operations: US$1.7m
- Restart Project: US$16.6m
- Exploration: US$0,6m
- Corporate Costs: US$2.8m
- Total Cash Expenditure: US$21.7m
Historical background
The General Mining Union Corporation (Gencor) discovered the Langer Heinrich Mine deposit in 1973.
Between the late 1970s and 1980, Gencor completed substantial technical work, including a full project-evaluation study, metallurgical studies, multiple exploratory shafts, and the construction of a 300,000 tonne per year dry screen plant and pilot plant at the Langer Heinrich Mine.
Acclaim Uranium acquired the mine in 1998 and completed additional drilling and a pre-feasibility study between 1999 and 2002.
In August 2002, Paladin acquired Langer Heinrich Uranium (Pty) Ltd. from Aztec Resources Ltd. (formerly Acclaim Uranium NL).
Paladin filed a resource estimation in April of 2005, and in July of 2005, the Ministry of Mines and Energy in Namibia approved the grant of a mining licence covering the Langer Heinrich deposit for a 25-year term. Initial construction at the Langer Heinrich project started in September 2005, leading to the mine’s official opening in March of 2007.
The Langer Heinrich Mine had its first full year of production in Paladin’s fiscal year ending June 30, 2009. Since then, Paladin has completed two expansion projects, the first being the Stage 2 expansion in fiscal 2010 and the second being the Stage 3 expansion that took place in fiscal 2012.
In July of 2014, Paladin announced the completion of the sale of a 25% stake in the Langer Heinrich mining operations to CNNC Overseas Uranium Holding Limited.
In May of 2018, Paladin announced that it had received the consent of relevant stakeholders to place the Langer Heinrich Mine on care and maintenance and that it had stopped presenting ore to the plant.
In its annual report for the year ended June 30, 2019, Paladin announced that in February 2019 it had completed a concept study that identified multiple options to reduce operating costs, improve process plant performance, and potentially recover a saleable vanadium product.
The annual report also disclosed that Paladin had commenced a two-stage pre-feasibility study respecting a potential re-start of mining operations at the Langer Heinrich Mine upon a sustained recovery in uranium prices.
On October 14, 2019, Paladin announced the completion of the first stage of its pre-feasibility study, which included a JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate for the Langer Heinrich Mine with measured resources of 71.87 Mlbs of U3O8 (66.2 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.049% U3O8) and indicated resources of 17.96 Mlbs of U3O8 (18.8 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.044% U3O8).
Such a resource estimate was reported on a depleted basis as of June 30, 2018, and did not include stockpiles.
Paladin’s disclosure regarding the prefeasibility study included: (a) an estimate of US$80 million required for the rapid restart of the mine, including US$38 million for plant repair and improvement and US$42 million for working capital; (b) an initial production capacity of 5.2 Mlbs, while processing high and medium grade ores for approximately an 8-year period (after a 12-month ramp-up), followed by production capacity of 2.7 Mlbs while processing low grade ores for approximately 12 years; and (c) a resulting average life of mine all-in sustaining cost of approximately US$33 per pound, consisting of life-of-asset mining costs of US$8.40 per pound, processing costs of US$18.20 per pound, other operating costs of US$2.60 per pound and capital costs of US$3.80 per pound.
Paladin further disclosed that it had identified opportunities, requiring estimated discretionary capital expenditures of US$30 million, to significantly debottleneck existing mining and mineral processing operations to 6.5 Mlbs per year and reduce all-in sustaining costs by approximately US$4.50 per pound.
On June 30, 2020, Paladin announced the result of the Langer Heinrich Restart Plan, which refined the results of the previous Prefeasibility Report.
The Restart Plan is based on a re-sequencing of mining and processing activities outlined in the 2019 PFS and takes elements from both the PFS 5.2 Mlb Option and the PFS 6.5 Mlb Option.
The release states that the mine could be brought back into production for US$81 million of pre-production cash expenditure. The release also states a C1 cost of production of US$27/lb and a 17-year mine life with a peak production of 5.9 Mlbs of U3O8 for seven years. The Life of Mine Plan outlines three distinct operational phases: ramp-up (year 1), mining (years 2–8), and stockpile (years 9–17).
The restart plan also re-stated the mineral resources associated with the project, explicitly including the ROM stockpiles in the resources.
The underlying in-situ mineral resource, as announced on October 14, 2019, remains unchanged, as are the tonnes and grade stated for ROM stockpiles in the same announcement. *Uranium Royalty
