Johannesburg — GOLD and uranium miner First Uranium, whose major shareholder is Simmer & Jack, made a smaller loss in the year to March than last year as it stepped up production from its developing underground and tailings retreatment operations.
But the Ezulwini underground mine sold only 10082oz of gold for the year, below its 19001oz target. This was because of limited mining activity and processing of low- grade stockpiles during underground refurbishment.
No uranium was produced in the past two years.
At Ezulwini, the uranium plant is being commissioned and the first delivery of yellowcake will be made to Nufcor next week.
At MWS, the first two modules of the uranium plant are under construction, but will be commissioned later than expected because of design changes . Unfavourable uranium prices have delayed the third module.
The capital cost of building MWS's gold and uranium processing plants has risen to 451,6m from about 315m in the prefeasibility study two years ago because of cost increases and changes like the siting of the tailings dam.
