chris1983 said:
I could of taken an extremely good profit at 70 cents. I'm holding. If you look at the chart they are looking good. Had a bounce off the downtrend and has now moved into an uptrend. Also in light of the latest release in regards to licenses in Namibia it seems to me that they are going to be harder to get granted so the licenses erongo allready have are quite valuable. Dont forget the fact that they are in early stages. A large jump may be 3-4 months away still. I can see them rising steadily above 70 though. Hopefully they obtain those historic drilling results.
Chris,
I'm not sure if this will affect ERN but you should check this out with the company
Namibia halts uranium applications
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 16 February 2007
CONCERNS over the end use of uranium mined from its backyard has prompted the Namibian Government to stop accepting prospecting uranium applications from companies as the Government brings order to the rush for the country's uranium. Report by Rebecca Lawson.
According to media reports out of the country on Wednesday, the Government has announced it had stopped accepting applications for exploration and prospecting licences (EPL) for uranium, and had done so for the past two months.
In an article published in the Namibian newspaper, Ministry of Mines and Energy Permanent Secretary Joseph Iita is reported to have said the Government would call for a moratorium on applications as it reconsidered its policies into the resource.
Of particular concern to the Government was the end use of the controversial commodity, which prompted Iita to comment that the Government did not want to give "every Jack and Jill" a licence and possibly putting it into the hands of the wrong person or company.
"Everyone is running to Namibia for uranium and we don't want every Jack and Jill mining uranium," Iita told the newspaper.
"The world is now highly advanced and has come up with all sorts of uses for uranium.
"In the end uranium is not only used for the generation of electricity, but can be used for destructive purposes as well."
Namibia is already home to two producing mines, Rio Tinto's Rossing and Paladin Resources' Langer Heinrich, and Export Finance and Insurance chief economist Roger Donnelly said with the African nation's stance as a safe country in the emerging markets category, there was no need for panic at the moment.
Based on knowledge garnered from media reports out of the country's press, Donnelly commented that the move would not damage Namibia's standing as a fine destination for foreign investment, instead it would only increase its reputation in that field.
"I don't think this will be a terrible block on the investment climate at all," he said.
"It is partly out of concern about nuclear proliferation that they have taken this action, it could be this measure is more carefully interpreted that it actually, far from tarnishing their investment reputation, actually burnishes it a bit.
"You have to draw a distinction between revoking the concessions of people who have already sunk a lot of capital into a project, by way of exploration and development dollars, which is pretty unconscionable conduct and will badly tarnish your reputation as an investment destination.
"That's in contrast to putting a bit of a temporary standstill, or a moratorium, on the granting of new licences with a view to rationalising the process and perhaps weeding out 'Jacks and Jills'."
The halt in uranium applications comes in the wake of a moratorium earlier this month on the granting of diamond cutting and polishing licences, which followed the renewal of a five-year sales agreement between the Government and De Beers.
However, Namibia-focused uranium explorers Bannerman Resources, Deep Yellow and Extract Resources all told MiningNewsPremium.net they agreed with the Government's action.
"We've had no notification of anything different to normal, it's business as usual, in fact our dealings with all government departments have been very good and we're quite happy with the way things are going," Bannerman director Clive Jones said.
Martin Kavanagh, a director of Deep Yellow, said having seen the rush to grab exploration ground in the country, he understood the Government's move to tighten up policies regarding uranium exploration.
"The area where we're working in, there's no ground available. It's all under applications," Kavanagh said.
Meanwhile, a recent change in the length of holding and reporting on an EPL has Extract company secretary Rance Dorrington commenting on the responsibility and fairness of the Government, which has remained open and willing to communicate to its foreign investors.
"We've had licences issued recently to us, and they've changed the conditions in which they're issued. They're issued now for requiring you to report on an annual basis and they give you a period of 12 months to hold the licence, instead of three years which they used to issue them," Dorrington said.
"It doesn't surprise me, there has been so much interest over there and they've been fairly good with us in granting us our four licences over the last couple of years."
However, reasons for issuing a moratorium on uranium EPLs could be closer to home, especially in the political arena with a looming power issue with its neighbour South Africa, which supplies some 50% of Namibia's electricity needs. With South Africa itself experiencing regular power shortages, Namibia has begun looking into ways to become more self-sufficient for its energy needs.
It was reported that just last month, the Namibian Government was considering a nuclear power plant to escape the forthcoming energy crisis and was looking for international partners to build the plant.
According to Donnelly, with Namibia's standing as a stable country in sub-Saharan Africa, nuclear power could be the way to go.
"I think that really is dependent upon whether they decide to proceed within the international framework of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] safeguards and non-proliferation safeguards if they were to do [nuclear power] in an open and transparent way, I think it isn't necessarily a bad thing for the country," Donnelly said.