Zambezi Resources: Rio Tinto Exits Mulofwe Uranium JV

Zambezi Resources said Thursday that it has received notice from Rio Tinto Mining and Exploration (Rio) that it has withdrawn from the Mulofwe Uranium Joint Venture (JV) in Zambia.

Rio's withdrawal from the JV took effect as of March 9, Zambezi said.

Rio cites the primary reason for withdrawing from the JV as "a reduction in global budgets across Rio Tinto Exploration has forced us to re-examine our portfolio and focus on a few core projects".

Rio entered into the JV on 4 September 2007 with the intention of generating and drill testing targets for uranium mineralisation within the property.

Initial work by Zambezi highlighted the potential of the project through detailed airborne radiometrics. Follow up rock chipping and trenching lead to the discovery of the Nkala Prospect. Results of this initial radiometric survey showed an anomalous corridor of elevated radiometric response in excess of 20km in strike coincident with lithostratigraphic shale units and structure.

Subsequent to the JV being signed in 2007, Rio embarked on a detailed and focused exploration program consisting of airborne VTEM, surface mapping, spectral mapping, rock chipping, trenching, SEM characterisation of selected minerals and wholerock analysis of selected samples.

The work carried out by Rio has significantly advanced the Nkala Prospect and identified other new targets with coincident VTEM conductors and elevated radiometric response within the project area. As a result of the detailed exploration work carried out by Rio, collar positions for drillholes have been planned and were intended for testing by Rio in Q4, 2008. It is Zambezi's intention to drill these targets when the Company has secured its financial position.

Due to the infancy of the project and work that had been carried out on the project to date by Rio Tinto the Company does not believe that the withdrawal is material to the operations of the Company given the progress that had been made and that Withdrawal took place prior to any drilling taking place and any drill results being announced.

Zambezi Resources (LSE:ZRL)
과거 데이터 주식 차트
부터 4월(4) 2024 으로 5월(5) 2024