PERTH (miningweekly.com) – September-quarter production from the Langer Heinrich mine, in Namibia, was significantly lower than expected, as unforeseen issues with process circuit scaling exacerbated production losses from planned maintenance, ASX- and TSX-listed Paladin Energy reported.
The uranium miner had previously warned shareholders that quarterly production for the three months to September would be down by about 20% on the previous quarter; however, the final production results have come in 23% lower.
The Langer Heinrich mine only produced 1.02-million pounds of uranium oxide (U3O8) during the quarter ended September, compared with the 1.33-million pounds U3O8 produced during the June quarter.
Paladin told shareholders that the source of the scale formation was identified and routine anti-scalant addition procedures were modified during the quarter. By the end of the period, scale formation had been brought under control and all major affected equipment had been cleaned.
In the case of affected process water pipelines, these have either been replaced or, in the case of major pipelines, duplicated to provide future redundancy.
Paladin has maintained its 2015 production guidance of between 5.4-million and 5.8-million pounds of U3O8.
The Kayelekera mine, in Malawi, did not operate during the period under review, as it transitioned to care and maintenance.
Meanwhile, sales during the quarter under review reached 1.25-million pounds U3O8, generating a revenue of $38.95-million.
Uranium deliveries scheduled for the December quarter would total 1.91-million pounds, with a higher expected average sales price, and above the September quarter average sales price, which Paladin said reflected both the improved spot uranium price and delivering volumes into defined price contracts.