Possibly the White House flap as to whether or not or not Saddam Hussein’s government tried to buy uranium ore in the region of Niger was the most effective publicity Niger has had about its uranium production for greater than two decades. How numerous geologists know that the Republic of Niger ranks fourth, behind Canada, Australia and Kazakhstan, in terms of the quantity of uranium annually made worldwide?

Named after the river which runs via it, Niger produces nearly four times the uranium presently mined inside the United States. A lot more uranium is mined in Niger than in Russia, South Africa, India, China, Brazil, Ukraine Namibia or Uzbekistan. In fact, should you additional up the total amount of uranium mined in South Africa, China, India, Brazil, Czech Republic as well as the Ukraine for 2004, Niger would trump the combined production of those six countries. Right up until Dr. Jon Northern came along, uranium mining was pretty very much monopolized by Cogema and a consortium that includes Spanish and Japanese interests.

“This may be the fourth largest uranium producer within the globe,” raved an excited Dr. Northern into his cell phone throughout our taped interview. “Niger has never had an entrepreneurial and nimble junior mining company ever explore for uranium. And this is the initial one.” North was talking about Northwestern Mineral Ventures (TSX: NWT; OTC BB: NWTMF).
“Imagine if Australia, Canada and Kazakhstan having never had a junior organization trying to find uranium. It’s absolutely absurd to even think about the concept.”

The Republic of Niger supplies about 9 percent from the world’s annual manufacturing to meet the growing will need for uranium to fuel the world’s nuclear reactors. According to the IAEA-NEA Red Book of 2003, the sub-Saharan Niger ranked #4 behind Australia, Kazakhstan and Canada for total uranium reserves. In the 2005 update, it fell to seventh place. It may be that this nation is under-explored. In 1981, Niger made a peak of 4366 tonnes of uranium. As with others, mining creation plummeted while using spot cost of uranium during the 1980s and 1990s. The slump hit the region difficult due to the fact Niger depends upon uranium for more than 30 % of its exports, greater than $100 million. Five percent with the country’s tax revenues come from uranium mining.

Dr. North discussed how he came to obtain concessions for equally his organization, North Atlantic Means (TSX: NAC) and Northwestern Mineral Ventures, in which he serves as a director and assists guide geological colleague and president Marek Kreczmer. “I traveled around the Sahara Desert twice on field trips having a neighborhood Niger geologist prior to I decided to utilize for permits. When I did this in 2004 using the minister of mines, he stated to me, ‘You know, you’re the initial individual to ever do this, as well as the only people who have done this are energy companies or governments.’ So, I informed him I would like to apply for two permits.” Northern obtained two for Northwestern Mineral Ventures and one more for North Atlantic Assets.

Salt Tectonics the Key to Uranium in Niger

North explained, “We selected the projects determined by the geologic ingredients that we felt were crucial within the control and distribution inside the uranium, for instance, but not limited to, northwest trending fault corridors, northeast trending fault corridors, and inliers of stratigraphy which are popping up by means of more youthful parts with the stratigraphy.” In accordance with Northern, the salt structures are the key to discovering uranium inside the Republic of Niger. “The northeast and northwest faults, and the inlier there, are all salt-related structures,” Northern remarked. An inlier is an area or formation of older rocks totally surrounded by more youthful layers. “For decades, the oilfield individuals have understood, emphasized and completed research on salt, the deposition and then the movement of salt through stratigraphic sequences,” Northern pointed out.

Salt is very common but it does not last extremely lengthy in stratigraphy and it escapes, North explained. “When it escapes, it forms walls and diapirs (an anticlinal fold exactly where the salt has pierced by means of the more brittle overlying rock).” Oil exploration geologists pay attention to these simply because they tend to form permeability barriers to oil and gas deposits. Northern is interested in them for a distinct reason, “We noticed that the salt diapirs, where they escaped through the sequence in Niger, coincided with the distribution of uranium deposits.”

Uranium within the Republic of Niger is mined by open pit because of the sandstones. “These are redox deposits,” North noted. “They tend to be associated with reduced layers and structures, for instance the former salt diapirs and faults in the stratigraphy. At the time, we didn’t actually realize why we have been accomplishing that. We just knew there was an association with uranium deposits and these structures in Niger.”

That appears to have made Dr. North’s job a walk in the park, or in this case, a walk within the desert. How do you inexpensively explore concessions of 2,000 square kilometers every? That is about 24 miles and 30 miles each and every, both within the desert. “If you do the target selection carefully, and you stick for the salt diapirs, those truly narrow down the search,” Northern revealed. “When we do our first multi sensor mag and radiometric survey, which will happen inside the next couple of months, we will map out people structures and characteristics, and look for radiometric anomalies linked with them. When we have that data, we’ll have at least 50 drill targets on individuals projects.” There appear being no scarcity of drill targets around the concessions.

Without that data, Northern believed he could have picked out ten high high quality drill targets, just from the geology map. “They show up as circular bull’s eyes on geology maps,” Northern noted excitedly. “In the desert they demonstrate up as low hills. They’re topographic anomalies exactly where you’ve about maybe 50 meters of relief. It’s actually just a reduced rise because the desert is flat as piss on a plate.” Northern explained that you can drive anywhere by pointing your vehicle and stepping about the gas. “The only issues in your way are these really low hills, and individuals hills are related to either faults or inliers (exposed older rocks surrounded by more youthful rocks).” Initial targeting comes straight from a topography map.

A Vote of Confidence on Current Progress

But what about the availability of drill rigs for this project? Northern conceded there is really a global shortage. But he shot back, “There’s a drilling business in West Africa referred to as West African Drilling services – and surprise! surprise! – I’ve been working with them for the past four many years.” Northern has already discussed moving a rig in with them. “Quite honestly, it’s actually not a huge issue,” he mentioned. Neither is labor or the cost of drilling. “We pay an all-inclusive expense of approximately US$150/meter,” North informed us. “Labor expenses are very reduced, about one-third the price of Northern America. We use all neighborhood people due to the fact that’s what we do in Mali. There are lots of extremely trained, skilled geologists in Niger.”

Clearly, Northwest Mineral Ventures is excited. “We are very pleased to be one from the first Northern American firms to acquire exploration permits in Niger – a country that has not been explored utilizing modern methods and has, until now, been 1 with the world’s best-kept uranium secrets,” Northwestern’s Chairman and CEO Kabir Ahmed told  Reuters in wire service story published in March.

Northwestern Mineral President Marek Krezcmer, who has been a geologist for a lot more than thirty years, seventeen of which had been spent exploring in Africa, was also enthused about the company’s prospects in Niger, “We know there’s uranium mineralization on the surface, based on the work which was accomplished by Jon North. I believe we can succeed. We’re likely to find uranium.” Kreczmer is familiar with geology in Africa and accomplishing business on this continent. “I’ve worked in Tanzania, Zambia, Swaziland, Ethiopia and Eritrea,” said Kreczmer. He was optimistic about building Northwestern Mineral Venture’s uranium concessions, “Our company plan there is to discover mineralization, and (have) possibly somebody like Cogema turn out to be a partner of choice.”

At Cogema’s seven open pit uranium mines which feed the Arlitt mill, the grades have operate 0.3 percent with 2003 production at 1126 tonnes. At the two open pit uranium mines which feed the Akouta mill, grades have run at between 0.4 and 0.5 percent with 2003 manufacturing at 2017 tonnes. Krezcmer explained that Northwestern’s exploration licenses are valid to get a period of nine years, three-year licenses which are renewable 3 times. The country’s mining act, according to Krezcmer allows Northwestern to apply for any mining license, which could be granted for among 25 and 70 several years.

We have been concerned with any political situations, but equally North and Kreczmer assured us the country is stable. “When I initial went to Niger in November 2004, and that was throughout the final election, it honestly looked like a lot of fun. Everybody had a little piece of rag tied close to their wrist or tied to the antenna of their vehicle to represent their political affiliation.”  Kreczmer additional, “My knowledge functioning in Africa is that due to the fact this nation relies so heavily on foreign aid, the Globe Bank has fantastic influence.”

The Republic of Niger has North’s vote on confidence. He has worked for that past few years as Chief Executive of Northern Atlantic Means, which hopes to develop its Kantela gold property in Mali. Niger and Mali and demographically and geographical identical, he told us. Northern feels Niger is going to become much more aggressive in building its uranium properties. He talked about how the President of Niger told his minister of mines, “Get available and advertise Niger as being open for business. We want people to come in here and invest. We desire to give them mineral rights, and we want them to do what Mali is accomplishing.” From the looks of it, the first to jump on the Niger bandwagon have been Northwestern Minerals and Northern Atlantic Assets, but they won’t be the last.

“My knowledge with Niger is the fact that it’s actually a peaceful, democratic region with no civil unrest. Let’s put it this way. They have less civil unrest than France.” Ironically, French is one from the country’s official languages. “You gotta be fair, right?” asked North. “The French recently stormed the Bastille in France, and they didn’t do anything like that in Niger.”

Just how exhilarated is Dr. Jon Northern? “The excitement in the market is we do the airborne survey,” he enthused. “We locate some radiometric anomalies that correlated within inliers. We demonstrate the model. If that doesn’t excite individuals, then I do not believe their hearts are beating.”

You can find more information about good stocks, penny stocks to watch, and best stocks to buy right now