Paladin Energy Forecasts Doubling of Uranium Output This Year

By Angela Macdonald-Smith

Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Paladin Energy Ltd., the Australian producer of uranium in Africa, said output is set to more than double this year as volumes increase at the Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia and a new project starts in Malawi.

Production should rise to 3.6 million pounds of uranium oxide in the year ending June 30, 2009, from 1.71 million in the preceding 12 months, Managing Director John Borshoff said on a conference call. Output should increase to 6.8 million pounds the following year, to 7.4 million in 2010-11 and 9.3 million in 2011-12, he said.

Paladin is due to complete an expansion of the Namibian project by the year end. The $200 million Kayalekera project in Malawi is due to start operating in January. It is also seeking to develop ventures in Australia, including the Mt. Isa and Angela projects. Global demand for uranium is rising as the construction of nuclear power plants gathers pace.

``This sets us up very well for what a true uranium company has to be, not just one project but a whole series of projects in stages of development with production coming in,'' Borshoff said late yesterday in a conference call, published on the company's Web site.

Borshoff said the company is ``confident'' that Australia's Queensland state, which bans uranium mining, will ``have a positive outlook for this metal'' by 2012, allowing the Mt. Isa project to start construction. Cameco Corp., Paladin's partner at the Angela deposit in the Northern Territory, should ``get the green light in a few months'' to start exploration work, he said.

The outlook for the uranium market is ``very strong,'' with ``stagnant'' supply and ``very bullish'' demand, Borshoff said.

The world needs to build 32 new nuclear plants each year as part of measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, the Paris-based International Energy Agency has said. The International Atomic Energy Agency forecasts that 60 nuclear plants will be built in the next 15 years.

To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Macdonald-Smith in Sydney at amacdonaldsm@bloomberg.net