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.

do you need to hold EML or KAH shares to get the special divi?

April 19, 2010

Kalahari Minerals Trumps Rio Tinto At Rossing South By Bringing In Japanese Sovereign Interests
By Charles Wyatt



Companies that own a major shareholding in another company often struggle to get the value of that investment fully recognised in their own share prices. One example fresh in the mind following its presentation at the recent Minesite Forum is Anglesey Mining. Anglesey has a 41 per cent holding in Labrador Iron Mines, currently worth 52p per Anglesey share. The share price of Anglesey, however, is only 40p, which takes no account of the fact that Anglesey also has a 100 per cent interest in the Parys Mountain mine, a partially developed copper-zinc-lead mine in North Wales. The same goes for Kalahari Minerals which has a 40.3 per cent holding in Extract Resources, currently worth 460 million. Kalahari itself is only capitalised at 357 million. In the cases of both Anglesey and Kalahari the discount will narrow sharply as production looms.
Extract is developing the Husab uranium project, directly to the south and only five kilometres away from Rio Tintos Rossing Mine, which is already in production. Work is focussing on three main prospects at Husab, Rossing South, Ida Dome and Hildenhof, and results continue to underpin the prospectivity of the region, particularly following the world class Rossing South discovery. Extract has reported a JORC compliant combined resource at Husab in excess of 292 million pounds U3O8 at a grade of 439 parts per million (ppm). Of that total, 267 million lbs U3O8 at a grade of 487 ppm is from two zones at Rossing South that run at a cut off of 100 ppm U3O8. These are both open ended at depth, and along strike. Mark Hohnen, executive chairman of Kalahari, believes Extract has the ground and potential to deliver a total resource of around 550 million lbs U3O8, which would make it the biggest uranium-only deposit in the world, and with excellent grades too. Rossing South alone has the potential to produce 15 million lbs U3O8 per year, and that would make Extract a Top Five global producer.

For a long time the betting has been that Rio Tinto, which has modest shareholdings in each company, making a bid for one or both of them. Rios recent quarterly results demonstrate that the pressure on Rio to make a move is rising. Lower grades hit production during the first quarter of this year at both ERA and Rossing, which resulted in a 20 per cent fall in production compared with the same period last year. At the same time, good exploration progress was reported at the Z20 prospect which is a strike extension from Rossing South.

At the beginning of 2009 we gave an insight into the politics being played by Rio Tinto in an effort to get its way on the cheap, but Mark played a blinder, and Rio Tinto had to ditch the devious tactics. In fact they were a waste of time and, crucially, did nothing to improve relations between the companies.

Unfortunately for Rio Tinto, things have changed significantly as far as its two targets are concerned and it no longer has the stage to itself. For a start Jonathan Leslie has been appointed chief executive of Extract and Chris McFadden, a nominee of Rio Tinto, has resigned. This is in line with an agreement reached at the Extract AGM last November that he would go when a new chief executive was appointed. As Mark Hohnen points out, Jonathan has an exceptional level of experience in the uranium sector, particularly in Namibia, where he was managing director of Rossing Uranium, Rio Tintos subsidiary, which operates the producing Rossing Mine. He is an international expert in the uranium industry and a well-respected figure in Namibia, with outstanding relationships with the Namibian government and mining agencies. He joins at a crucial time, as the Rossing South project is in course of transforming itself from a pure exploration play to a tier one uranium production company.

Reiterating this plan to become an independent producer must get right up the corporate nose of Rio Tinto, but independent production has always been the intention of Kalahari and Extract, and a target date of end 2013 has been set. The project benefits from a prevalence of infrastructure and its proximity to the coast, as its only 45 kilometres from Walvis Bay, Namibias main port.

In the meantime Kalahari has played another trump card, by bringing ITOCHU Corporation onto its list of shareholders with a 15 per cent stake. ITOCHU has a history going back to1858 when it was founded as a linen trader by Chubei Itoh. It now has 150 operations in 75 countries involved in trading a wide range of products, but particularly commodities. It is a powerful company, no doubt about that, and Rio Tinto no longer has the game to itself as ITOCHU will not have bought these shares on a whim. It has been involved in uranium since 1998 as one of the worlds biggest traders and delivered 4,000 tonnes to the market last year.

ITOCHU knows Namibia well, too, as it is involved in the offshore Kudu gas field, and this has also given it contacts with the Namibian government which could be useful. Mark Hohnen makes the point that ITOCHU has a strong relationship with the Japanese government, which will also provide vital financial support. This is being done through the Japanese state nuclear enterprise Japanese Oil, Gas & Metals National Corporation, or JOGMEC, the main aim of which is to ensure a stable supply of natural resources for Japan. At the moment Japans nuclear power industry supplies 30 per cent of the countrys electricity, but this is expected to rise to 40 per cent by 2017.

Poor old Rio Tinto. How it must wish it had made a move earlier, when it might have been able to acquire both Extract and Kalahari for pocket money. Now a big beast has entered the ring and corporate bullying is off the menu. Looks like Rio is going to have to watch Rossing South being developed as an independent producer, using funding from Japan, based around an offtake agreement negotiated by ITOCHU. Extract is hardly going to accept a bid from Rio Tinto with such a prize ahead of it and, anyway, it has Kalahari and its powerful friends to consult before any decision could be made. A fascinating situation and one that will enthral investors for some time to come.

http://www.minesite.com/nc/minews/singlenews/article/kalahari-minerals-trumps-rio-tinto-at-rossing-south-by-bringing-in-japanese-sovereign-interests/1.html

We seem to have lift off today!

From UK-Analyst.com: Friday 9th July 2010

Ambrian Capital maintained its "BUY" recommendation and 232p target price for Kalahari Minerals (KAH). The research house said that, for the mining and exploration company, upcoming share drivers fall into two broad categories. The first category is fundamental progress on Rossing South, which has been confirmed as the highest grade granite-hosted uranium deposit in Namibia. The second category is potential "game changers" through development, such as a joint venture with Rio Tinto, or a merger & acquisition. In both cases, Ambrian sees significant shareholder uplift; and thus remains very positive on the group's shares, which is currently at an 8% discount to its investment in Extract Resources. The shares moved up by 1.5p to 165p.

Weakend quote - 'While Rio Tinto is not looking to access the capital markets in the short term, according to Elliott, the firm is looking to take advantage of opportunities provided by market volatility, with a particular focus on small and medium acquisitions. Elliott said: You can find in a volatile environment an add-on acquisition that makes good sense to the company, where the synergies really exist. It is those sorts of acquisitions that were looking for at all times, and that is a very active process at the moment, but were not looking at large-scale acquisitions at the moment. ' Rio Tinto's Tom Albanese is in Namibia in vicinity of Rossing South. They have been mining uranium at nearby Rossing North for past 30 years. Acquisition of nearby uranium deposits with the top grade assay results the Rossing South reflects would make sense. 100% synergy! Also read that Russians are in Namibia with up to $2 billion to spend on purchase of uranium deposit in country to provide the fuel for nuclear power plants being built on shores of Black Sea. Suggest KAH is due a re-rating in near future

09/09/10 - 09:40
New zone confirmed at Rossing South, says Kalahari
StockMarketWire.com
Kalahari Minerals' 41.15%-owned Extract Resources has confirmed the emergence of a high grade strike at Husab's Rosing South uranium project.

Kalahari's executive chairman Mark Hohnen said chemical assay results confirmed the emergence of a high grade continuously mineralised strike of 1.7km at Zone 5, which provides further credence for the commissioning of multiple mining operations across Husab.

He added: "Importantly, these assays include an intersection of 29 metres, grading 1,653 ppm U3O8 from 279 metres, which ranks within the top 2% for metal content within the current Husab database, confirming Zone 5, which remains open along strike and down dip, as a high priority exploration target.

"In addition to the drilling programme underway at Zone 5, Extract also has a further 6km of the entire 15km Rsing South Anticline which is yet to be drill tested."

Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

From today's RNS:
Namibian Uranium Project Update

The August resource update (ASX release 10 August, 2010) has confirmed the
Husab Uranium Project's Rsing South as the fifth largest global uranium only
deposit. With 257 M lbs of Indicated Resource defined, the Company continues to
progress towards completing the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) and is well
placed to move from successful explorer to developing the world's second
largest uranium mine.

EXT up 10.93% in Australia!

KAH has been a rather dozy performer, but sp is now nicely challenging 200 dma ..... Q is, "will it make a break for glory at last?"

cynic: I think you could be right!

looking a healthy spike up at the mo.,.

There are suddenly a lot more buyers coming in, which I haven't seen in a long while.

Put this to bed for a year....and now hey presto....wakey...wakey..it's coming to life...by the way..anybody "au fait" as to the price of uranium ?...not been following....

Uranium price seems to be slowly creeping up at the moment RF, around the $49 per pound mark. A long way below it's 2007 peak of $136 because there has been plenty of it around: that won't last though, demand is set to increase.

Thanks....plenty of nuclear power stations throughout the world set to be built, and all the uranium from old missiles has been used up from what I understand.

Quite right!

EXT.AX 7.50 +0.30 +4.17% , Kalahari up 3.1% and still climbing!

EXT.AX 7.85 +0.35 +4.67% today: Time for KAH to catch up!

Just had a look at KAH's major shareholders and the profile of their latest substantial holder APAC Partners of Hong Kong.

Key Shareholders
Nippon Uranium Resources Australia Pty Ltd 33,781,505 14.94%
Rio Tinto International Holdings Australia Pty Ltd 28,267,310 12.50%
APAC Resources Capital Limited 27,454,377 12.14%
M&G Investment Management 20,900,000 9.24%
Henderson New Star 12,491,234 5.54%
Blakeney Management Limited 11,060,900 4.89%
...
APAC Resources Limited ("APAC") listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (stock code: 1104). APAC and its subsidiaries are principally engaged in (i) trading in base metals and commodities; and (ii) trading and investment in listed securities with a portfolio primarily focused on natural resources and related sectors and industries.

APAC's investment strategy is to generate above average returns via identifying and investing in resource companies that have potential to generate long-term sustainable cashflows and, hence, significant capital appreciation. Core investments include Mount Gibson Iron Limited (ASX: MGX) which mines iron ore in Western Australia, and Australia's largest tin producer, Metals X Limited (ASX:MLX). Other investments include Kalahari Minerals Plc (AIM:KAH) which has an interest in one of the world's largest undeveloped uranium deposit. APAC also runs a commodity trading division.

"Our mission is to be the pre-eminent resource investment house in Hong Kong and to provide long-term growth to our shareholders by pursuing high quality investments globally."

Nice looking chart and put me in good money so far, still no news but loving it.,.