China Guangdong Nuclear Power plans to acquire uranium miner Kalahari Minerals
10 Oct 2011
China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group is planning to launch a takeover bid for Kalahari Minerals, a London-based uranium miner that is currently worth around £650 million ($1 billion).
Guangdong Nuclear Power, China's second-biggest nuclear reactor builder, may offer 270 pence a share for AIM-listed Kalahari and the deal could be announced as early as this week, The Sunday Times reported today, without saying where it obtained the information from.
In March, Guangdong Nuclear Power had made a 290 pence-a-share offer but withdrew it after the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster due to the tsunami, according to the newspaper.
Kalahari holds a 42.7 per cent stake in Australia's Extract Resources, which owns the Husab uranium mine in Namibia. Husab is expected to become the world's second-biggest uranium mine. The mine would get operational 33 months after it gets project approval. Kalahari also mines gold, copper and other base metals in Namibia.
The Husab mine has proven and probable reserves of 320 million pounds of U308 and is expected have a mine life of over 20 years.
Guangdong Nuclear Power is also trying to reopen talks with Perth-based Extract Resources in order to make a friendly $1.2 billion takeover bid, according to several Australian media reports.