Husab produces its first Yellow Cake

30 December 2016 marked the official start of the production of Uranium Oxide at the massive Husab Uranium Mine east of Swakopmund. “Swakop Uranium’s (SU) historical moment was realised Friday, 30 December 2016, at 21:56, when SU Drum No. 1: U3O8 was produced, filled with Uranium Oxide,” an internal communique reads.
Speaking to namib times, Percy McCallum, Vice-President: Human Resources and Business Support at Swakop Uranium, described the moment as a huge milestone. Over the course of the first weeks of this year a couple of drums containing Uranium Oxide have been produced. “It is a slow ramp up, which means that it will still take a few months until we reach full capacity,” McCallum explained.
The Husab Uranium Mine is the single largest Uranium Mine in the world and took ten years to come online. The uranium deposit was discovered in 2006 and now, ten years later, at the end of 2016, the first Uranium Oxide was produced. It is also known as Yellow Cake due to its appearance.
According to the internal communique a celebratory ceremony was held on the site on 31 December 2016, during which SU CEO, Zheng Keping, expressed his gratitude for the hard work, determination and dedication to achieving the goal of creating the Husab Uranium Mine and ensuring this major milestone was achieved hand-in-hand with safety.
Keping urged the team to focus on producing sufficient ore and keep the production running at optimal during 2017.
According to the CEO Swakop Uranium is fortunate to have a guaranteed uptake of the 2017 production of Uranium Oxide, which will by agreement be sold to its majority shareholder China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN). “This arrangement provides further job security to our employees,” he said. CGN is the largest developer of nuclear power generating capacity in the world.