Foreign firms seek Zimbabwe uranium rights
HARARE, November 22 -- Foreign companies have approached Zimbabwe's
government for mining rights to exploit uranium deposits that were
found two decades ago, a senior industry official said today.
In remarks broadcast on state television at the weekend, President
Robert Mugabe said Zimbabwe had discovered deposits of the mineral
"recently" but intended to mine it only to generate electricity, not
for use in making nuclear weapons. Government officials were not
available to comment on the size of the uranium deposits, or the firms
trying to secure mining rights.
Yesterday David Murangari, the Chamber of Mines Chief Executive, said
uranium exploration had been carried out in the Zambezi valley two
decades ago and that a deposit had been found.
"Yes there is some uranium in Zimbabwe, the size I do not know,"
Murangari said. "I guess at that time (1980s) the price of uranium was
not good (but) I believe there are some companies that have approached
the ministry of mines about rights. I think there was one Australian
company."
In 2000, media in Zimbabwe and Argentina reported that the two
countries were exploring cooperation between the two countries in
developing a nuclear programme in Zimbabwe, including the construction
of a nuclear power plant.
But engineers were quoted at the time as saying landlocked and
drought-prone Zimbabwe did not have the vast amounts of water, nor the
expertise, for such a project. In his remarks on Sunday, Mugabe said:
"We have found uranium, which is used to make electricity (and) the
bombs that you hear about but when we mine it we would not want it to
be used in bomb making we would use it to give us electricity."
The broadcaster said the president spoke at a function at a plant owned
by state power utility Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority. Enriched
uranium can be used to fuel nuclear power plants or, in a more enriched
state, to produce a nuclear weapon.
Mugabe's government, in an increasingly bitter stand-off with the West
over its seizure of white-owned farms, is drawing closer to other
countries including Iran and North Korea, both of which are at
loggerheads with the international community over their nuclear
programmes. - Reuters
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