As copper becomes ever hotter property and the tantalising price of $3/lb heaves into view, at least for the optimistic among us, companies with their focus on the metal naturally become more interesting. A recent newcomer to the London market, Kalahari Minerals [AIM:KAH] can offer investors no less than three copper projects, with a uranium joint venture thrown in to add piquancy to the proposition.

Altogether, Kalahari can already boast an estimated 250,000 tonnes of copper in the ground across its Namibian ground, which makes it clear that the company has moved beyond exploration and into the pre-feasibility phase with its two key projects. The area in which the company is operating was explored preliminarily by other players back in the 1970s, and a sizable portion of the presently known resources originate from this spell, but failure by those then exploring to come across any very large targets plus a deteriorating political situation in Namibia brought proceedings to a halt.



Now that the copper market looks very different and the politics of Namibia have improved, Kalaharis ground is a lot more desirable. Indeed, the companys Chairman Mark Hohnen admits that it has been lucky to have been able to stake the areas it has, which essentially amount to a large slice of the Namibian section of the Kalahari copper belt, which has some geological similarities with the much storied Zambian copper belt.

Kalaharis first order of priority is the Dordabis project, within which it has homed in on a deposit known as Koperberg. Drilling here has identified oxide and sulphide zones of mineralisation and recorded some good intersections, the highlight of which has been 5 metres graded at 3.43% copper. A small scale pilot processing plant is already recovering copper cathode on site.

The Koperberg resource is still open, and an alluring possibility raised by Hohnen is that it could conform to the Olympic Dam geological model. That is, a massive body of IOCG (iron oxide copper gold) mineralisation with significant smatterings of uranium. It is too early to tell whether this is the case or not, but such a scenario is certainly something pleasant to dream of for Kalahari shareholders, and the company has allocated funds specifically towards testing this hypothesis.

Kalaharis second key project goes by the name of Witvlei, and hosts five known copper deposits along with a number of prospects. The next step for the company will be to try and expand the existing deposits and define resources at the prospects in order to come up with a total resource of a potentially economic size.

If this resource development programme comes up with the goods, Hohnen suggests that an attractive option for Kalahari at Witvlei may be the tried and tested development model of establishing initial cash flow from oxide material before moving on to trickier-to-process sulphides. The same development path could also be worth considering at Koperberg if the Olympic Dam model is not found to hold true there.

Kalaharis only grassroots stage project is Ubib, which has been is known to host copper gold mineralisation with a hint of uranium but needs appraising more thoroughly before much more than this can be said. The project is located some 15 kilometres from Anglo Gold Ashantis Navachab gold mine, which obviously auspicates well. Current work is centred on stream sampling to help identify prospective target zones for the application of more advanced exploration techniques.

The Husab uranium project, which is a joint venture with Extract Resources [ASX:EXT] structured to give Extract 51% and Kalahari the remainder, has surprised both companies. Hohnen says that little was thought of Husab until last year, when some great radiometric anomalies were turned up. The presence of uranium along with other metals has now been confirmed, and diamond drilling to test the deposit at depth begins in the next couple of weeks.

Husab is located right between the Rossing uranium mine, owned by Rio Tinto [LSE:RIO; NYSE:RTP], and the Langer Heinrich deposit, which is being developed by the uranium darling of the Australian market, Paladin Resources [ASX:PDN]. Extract has already gained significant recognition from its constituency of investors for Husab, and if drilling confirms the joint venture partners optimism, then the project could well help win Kalahari some fans in the London market, where uranium plays are not as numerous as they could be, and hence much in demand.

Investment Outlook

Kalahari has raised 6 million by way of its AIM listing, and intends to devote the largest portion of this sum to work at Dordabis. Therefore, this is the project that investors should be keeping their weather eye on. Significant progress down the road to feasibility is sure to add value to the company, other things, such as the copper market, being equal.

But in addition to Dordabis, there is scope for either or both of Witvlei and Ubib to shape up and grab investors attention. Husab already stands out, and with a high level of market interest in new uranium projects still apparent, it is a nice asset for Kalahari to have.

RNS Number : 4660I
Kalahari Minerals PLC
19 November 2008

Kalahari Minerals plc / Ticker: KAH / Index: AIM / Sector: Mining & Exploration

The information contained herein is restricted and is not for publication, release or distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States or to residents or citizens of the United States.

19 November 2008

Kalahari Minerals plc ('Kalahari' or 'the Company')

Termination of Proposed Restructure of Kalahari Minerals Plc and Extract Resources Limited

Overview

Implementation Agreement for proposed restructure of the ownership of Kalahari Minerals Plc and Extract Resources Limited terminated

Kalahari currently holds 39.11% of Extract's ordinary shares and will pursue other options to maximise the value of its stake

For the reasons outlined below, Kalahari Minerals Plc has formally advised Extract Resources Limited (ASX & TSX: EXT) ("Extract") that the approval of its shareholders will not be able to be secured and the merger announced on 5 September 2008 (the "Restructure") will not be able to be implemented.

As a result, the directors of Kalahari and Extract announce that the Restructure Implementation Agreement dated 5 September 2008 ("RIA") has been terminated and the Restructure will not proceed.

Background

The terms of the Restructure were announced to the market on 5 September 2008.

On 11 September 2008, Kalahari announced that Rio Tinto ('Rio") had acquired a 14.9% interest in Kalahari and a shareholding of 10.9% in Extract (Rio has subsequently increased its shareholding in Extract to 13.1%). Rio acquired its shares in both Kalahari and Extract from RAB Capital, which had been put under unforseen financial pressure caused by the global financial crisis. This was unfortunate as RAB had been a major supporter of Kalahari (as well as Extract) pre and post its float on AIM, fully participating in the Company's last capital raising in March 2008.

After the Restructure, Rio would have held approximately 19.8% of the enlarged company (on a diluted basis) and would have been entitled to further increase that stake without being subject to the 20% limit under the Australian takeovers provisions.

Following Rio's emergence on the register of Kalahari and Extract, concerns were raised by a number of Kalahari's larger shareholders about the potential for Rio to acquire effective control of the merged company without paying a premium for doing so. In addition, a number of those shareholders were concerned that Rio's material holding in the combined group would give it an unhealthy level of control and/or influence in relation to any future negotiations involving a potential transaction between Rio (or its related company, Rossing Uranium) and the merged company either at the asset or the corporate level.

Kalahari therefore sought further guidance and assurances from Rio regarding its intentions for the future control of the enlarged company.

In particular, Kalahari sought a commitment that Rio would not increase its shareholding in the combined group for a period of time after the merger was implemented (subject to a number of agreed carve-outs such as a third party making an offer for the merged company).

Unfortunately, it is now apparent that a standstill commitment will not be able to be agreed with Rio on terms which would satisfy the concerns raised by Kalahari's shareholders.

Kalahari has therefore advised Extract that it does not have the support of its major shareholders to pass the requisite resolutions at the planned meeting of Kalahari shareholders and the Restructure will not be able to be implemented.

Kalahari retains a 39.11% interest in Extract and now intends to consider a range of other options with a view to maximising the value of that interest.

(EDITED)

cyril

Deal off!

Click here

New article, Click HERE

Taken my eye of this of late, record high and record trading this week with today more than double the previous best?
cyril

Just look at that chart,really flying at the minute. Worth checking out is URU who
hold a large %'age of these(more thanM/C alone), + 3M in cash and its own project for free.
cyril

Calamari......uranium squid soup of the day, along with Vane minerals, flying today indeed...been in since the 40p mark...best performing stock in my porfolio it seems !.

This is going ballistic...where is the top here ?, a pound or more ?.

Blimey, this looks like VOG of a few years ago but with more substance....could go all the way to 120p...perhaps ?.

Further to go tomorrow morning...big big buys coming in...one of the largest uranium deposits in the world...!.

Well for me this was the dish of the day !.

Time to delve into the bottom draw methinks and dust of these beauties, up
100% so far. Just goes to show what patience can bring?
URU which i mentioned earlier has an interest worth 25m in KAH against
a M/Cap of just under 18m, although the real bargain appears to be EXT which is the owner of the Rossing field, needs to be traded on the ASX though.
It seems that Rio has shown its hand and looks like they may try to take out
EXT via Kah via URU, all good conjecture but thats my feeling on whats going on?
I was posed to buy into URU and was planning to start up a new thread, although i've missed the main surge i'll be interestd to see the action 1st thing tomorrow?

cyril

Another company invested in KAH is EML who have over 11m shares, up 44%
but still worth taking look as they have approx 11m cash in the bank.

Just realised i in got at 33p so up 150%+, 40p was the price i told my neighbour
to buy at.
cyril

I'd like to think that the rise will continue....there may be some halts in a day or so.....question is : when is the best time to take some profit ?...this stock looks like a cracker...."one of the biggest uranium discoveries in the world"....well if that is true and the market seems to think so...1st stop at 120p (guesswork) followed by a pullback and then further climbing later....timing the ins and outs will be tricky !.

this is not a stock i have ever followed even remotely, but is the present stellar rise merely based on hype and lemmings following lemmings, or is there actually something sensible behind it all?

Several things are going on...Rio Tinto are in the hunt for possibly a bigger piece of the action....uranium is the flavour of the month as well.....and the drilling results are fantastic from what information I can get on Money Am....Shares Magazine and Investors Chronicle rate this as a buy (that's why I bought) plus looks like we have a VOG effect in motion here with everybody about to pile in....put all this together and we might have a cracker here, add a couple of other companies with big investments in KAH and voila !....Niceonecyril knows a lot more about this than I do....but in a bleak market this is starting to shine like a beacon !.

The only trouble here is : is this going to spike up and then down ?.....well on the down if there is one, it will not come down to 40p again that you can count on it !.

well done all holders.
rf
remember dont be afraid to take a profit or hold on too long. or bail out too soon, remember also you is now an old timer, hopefully having learned lessons.(bit like counting on oil never getting below 100 again ) lots of stuff to consider there.
good luck
jkd

You are a wise old owl jkd....thanks....well here we go...could go either way I suppose, but up is more likely !.

Well...it's down....for the moment !.

Hardly any trades at all...what's happened to the rush of blood ?, and buy buy buy sort of thing ?.