PERTH (miningweekly.com) - ASX- and TSX-listed Bannerman Resources has received environmental approval from the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism to develop its Etango uranium project.

The latest approval complemented the environmental approval received last year for the project’s off-site infrastructure, and was a necessary step in obtaining a mining licence.

Bannerman said on Tuesday that it would lodge the environmental approval along with the recently completed definitive feasibility study with the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy, in support of the mining licence application.

“Receipt of the environmental approval is a key milestone for the Etango uranium project and reflects over three years of specialist environmental- and social-impact studies, as well as an extensive public consultation process,” said CEO Len Jubber on Tuesday.

“We recognize and accept the responsibility associated with being granted an environmental approval and commit to continuing our activities in a manner which respects the environment and local communities.”

Jubber said the receipt of the environmental approval took Bannerman one step closer to the substantial stakeholder benefits which would stem from the development of this project.

The definitive feasibility study estimated that the project could produce between seven- and nine-million pounds of uranium oxide a year for the first five years of operation, and between six- and eight-million tons a year thereafter, ranking the project as one of the top-ten pure uranium projects in the world.

The project would have a minimum openpit mine life of 16 years, with further extensions through the conversion of existing inferred resource and new drilling programmes already under way.

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