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PALADIN ENERGY LTD

ACN 061 681 098

18 July 2016

ASX Market Announcements Australian Securities Exchange 20 Bridge Street

SYDNEY NSW 2000

By Electronic Lodgement

Dear Sir/Madam

QUARTERLY ACTIVITIES REPORT FOR PERIOD ENDING - 30 JUNE 2016 HIGHLIGHTS
  • Salesof 1,805,017lb U3O8atan average selling price of US$34.91/lb (a US$7.41/lb premium to the average spot price of US$27.50/lb)

  • Langer Heinrich Mine
    • U3O8production 1,119,171lb and U3O8drummed 1,004,594lb,down 14% and 21% respectively vs. last quarter

    • Ore milled of 842,861t, down 14% vs. last quarter

    • Average plant feed grade of 670ppm U3O8, down 5% vs. last quarter

    • Overall recovery of 89.2%, up 4% vs. last quarter

    • Quarterly C1 cash cost of production of US$26.60/lb (vs. guidance of US$25.00/lb to US$27.00/lb)

    • TSF3 water return issue largely resolved and not expected to impact future quarters

  • Kayelekera
    • Discharge of treated water continued successfully during the quarter

  • Cash and cash equivalents at 30 June 2016 of US$59.2M within guidance of US$45M to US$65M
  • Achieved objective of being cash flow positive on an 'all in' basis for FY16 excluding one-off restructuring costs and capital management
  • US$25.0M LHM Revolving Credit Facility put in place and was undrawn as at 30 June 2016
  • Discussions advanced with parties regarding strategic investment transactions, with announcement expected before the end of July
  • FY17 Guidance being reviewed to consider changes to the LHM mine plan to reduce cost levels substantially below prior guidance levels

Level 4, 502 Hay Street, Subiaco, Western Australia 6008 Postal: PO Box 201, Subiaco, Western Australia 6904

Tel: +61 (8) 9381 4366 Fax: +61 (8) 9381 4978 Email:paladin@paladinenergy.com.au Website: www.paladinenergy.com.au

SAFETY

The Company achieved 726 Lost Time Injury (LTI) free days at the Kayelekera Mine (KM). At the Langer Heinrich Mine (LHM) the Company sustained two lost time injuries during the quarter.

The Company's 12 month moving average Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) remained steady at 1.8 as compared to 1.8 at the end of the last quarter and showed an improvement when compared with the 2.4 for the quarter to 30 June 2015.

The two lost time injuries were:

  • a mine diesel mechanic sustained a chest and arm injury when attempting to remove a bent drill rod; and

  • a student suffering an amputation of a fingertip whilst assembling a thickener underflow pump.

QUARTERLY URANIUM SALES

Total sales for the quarter was 1,805,017lb U3O8at an average selling price of US$34.91/lb, generating gross sales revenue of US$63.0M, which was a 205% increase over the previous quarter's revenue. As advised at the end of the March quarter, the aggregate sales volume this quarter reflected a fixed price contract delivery and a large CNNC delivery. Sales volume during the September quarter will, as in the March quarter, be lower due to inventory accumulation for another fixed price contract delivery and a large CNNC delivery in the December quarter.

The TradeTech weekly spot price average for the June quarter was US$27.50/lb.

LANGER HEINRICH MINE, NAMIBIA (75%)

Production and cash cost of production

2015

Jun Qtr

2015

Sep Qtr

2015

Dec Qtr

2016

Mar Qtr

2016

Jun Qtr

FY16

U3O8production(lb)

1,336,826

1,082,983

1,258,833

1,302,169

1,119,171

4,763,156

C1 cash cost of production (US$/lb)

26.03

27.82

25.38

24.13

26.60

25.88

Quarterly U3O8production of 1,119,171lb was down on the preceding quarter by 14%. The amount of drummed material produced (i.e., U3O8drummed) for the quarter was also down from last quarter at 1,004,594lb.

LHM unit C1 cash cost of production for the quarter increased by 10% from US$24.13/lb in the March quarter. Unit C1 cash cost of production was 2% higher than in the quarter to 30 June 2015.

The increase in C1 cash cost of production for the June quarter was largely due to issues with performance of water return sumps from LHM tailings storage facility no. 3 (TSF3) that was flagged in the 31 March 2016 Interim Financial Report and MD&A. This raised C1 cash cost of production due to: (i) the loss of approximately 150,000lb of production and the amortisation of fixed cost elements of production cost over the lower overall volumes; and (ii) an additional US$0.89/lb in C1 cash cost directly attributable to the cost of purchasing extra water externally and increased soda ash consumption due to the reduction in water recovery from TSF3 which is a major source of soda ash to the circuit. The TSF3 return water issue was largely resolved by the end of the June quarter by drilling and preparation of new return water wells. It is not expected to have a material impact on production going forward.

Guidance previously provided was for LHM unit C1 cash cost of production for the June quarter to be within the range of US$25.00/lb to US$27.00/lb.

Mining

2015

Jun Qtr

2015

Sep Qtr

2015

Dec Qtr

2016

Mar Qtr

2016

Jun Qtr

FY16

Ore mined (t)

700,831

833,057

680,892

673,517

744,161

2,931,626

Grade (ppm U3O8)

792

705

757

789

620

715

Low grade ore mined (t)

354,559

811,805

535,358

304,267

646,934

2,298,365

Grade (ppm U3O8)

325

317

319

323

325

321

Waste (t)

4,143,019

4,679,474

5,334,716

5,056,750

4,272,713

19,343,652

Total Ore and Waste (t)

5,198,410

6,324,336

6,550,966

6,034,534

5,663,808

24,573,643

Waste/ore ratio

6.4

6.6

8.6

8.0

6.6

7.4

Total mined volume for the quarter was down 6% on the prior quarter. Ore (high and medium grade) mined for the quarter was below budget both in tonnage and grade. This was due to a higher than budgeted strip ratio as well as the actual mining sequence being varied from the budget sequence.

ROM ore stockpiles decreased at the end of the quarter as predicted in the previous quarter. Low stockpile levels will remain until sufficient high grade ore is exposed in Pit H3-South by mid July 2016. The ROM medium grade ore is still being supplemented by medium grade ore from long term stockpiles in line with the mine plan.

TSF5 earthworks (cut and fill) started at the end of June and will continue for the entire September quarter. The target completion date for TSF5 is the end of April 2017.

Processing

2015

Jun Qtr

2015

Sep Qtr

2015

Dec Qtr

2016

Mar Qtr

2016

Jun Qtr

FY16

Ore milled (t)

886,520

847,016

903,187

981,083

842,861

3,574,147

Grade (ppm U3O8)

778

706

714

705

670

699

Overall recovery (%)

87.8

82.2

88.5

85.5

89.2

86.3

U3O8production(lb)

1,336,826

1,082,983

1,258,833

1,302,169

1,119,171

4,763,156

U3O8production for the June quarter was down 14% on the prior quarter mainly due to a 14% decrease in ore milled. The decrease in ore milled was associated with a lack of recycled water from the tailings system and unplanned mechanical plant breakdowns. Currently, several new recovery bores are being drilled and it is expected that the recycle water system will be returned to normal operations by the end of July 2016. Carbonate levels have returned to normal in the Pregnant Liquor Solution (PLS) while chloride and sulphate contaminants continue to decrease. Consequently, ion exchange performance improved during the quarter and the Bicarbonate Recovery Plant has returned to normal operation, providing maximum reagent recovery.

KAYELEKERA MINE, MALAWI (85%)

Operations

The Kayelekera Mine (KM) remains on Care and Maintenance.

Quarterly activities at site focussed on the water treatment program. The application for the renewal of the Water Discharge Licence for 2016/17 was submitted to the Malawi Government on 23 May 2016. Water treatment continued throughout the quarter with the lime water treatment plant ceasing operation on 30 June 2016. The lime water treatment plant treated a total of 925,148m3of water in the June quarter. The membrane water treatment plant was brought back online on 5 June 2016 after extended downtime due to the replacement of some membranes. The membrane water treatment plant treated a total of 26,361m3of water in the June quarter. All treated water for the quarter was discharged to the Sere River.

At 30 June 2016 water inventories had reduced in the two major storage ponds with the tailings storage facility holding 26% of the recommended storage capacity and RWP2 at 74% of its maximum storage capacity. These dams are on track to reach their pre wet season targets and are well below the levels for the same period last year. Work continued during the quarter to improve storage capacity around the Champhanje Dam and to increase pumping capacities between storage ponds.

Exploration

Despite the delay in the approval and promulgation of the new Mining Act the Malawi Mines Department has issued two new EPL's to the company, EPL417 - Rukuru and EPL418 - Uliwa, the remaining three EPL's are still in the application stage. Due to ongoing care and maintenance at Kayelekera the company has made application to the Mines Department to waive all or part of the expenditure commitment on the two recently granted EPL's.

Exploration in the June quarter continued the surface geophysical surveys, stream sediment sampling and geological mapping previously undertaken in areas around the mine on ML152 and EPL225. Company processing of the regional geophysical data (radiometrics, magnetics and gravity) obtained from the Government of Malawi is ongoing and is expected to aid in the generation of future exploration targets.

MANYINGEE-CARLEY BORE PROJECT, WESTERN AUSTRALIA (100%)

Manyingee

The final regional and local scale groundwater report has now been received from consultants CDM Smith. This report will now form the basis of the small scale field leach trial application currently being formulated by the company. Work performed previously in this regard will be updated and included into the application document with the intention of lodging it with the Department of Mines and Petroleum before the end of CY16.

Carley Bore

Formal transfer of the tenements to the company has now been completed and with this planning is underway to start a drilling programme early in the December quarter. Processes are in place to obtain the appropriate cultural and heritage clearances to enable the programme to commence on time. The drilling is expected to focus on the most northerly tenement in order to more accurately define the position of the red-ox front which will aid in drill targeting for future years and on the southern tenement to confirm and refine the mineralisation model.

AURORA-MICHELIN URANIUM PROJECT, CANADA (100%)

Following on from last year's (northern summer) soil survey programme a small infill soil survey has now been planned to both fill in some gaps in the previous survey and extend some areas on the periphery. It is expected that this work will commence late in the September quarter and will run in conjunction with the final clean-up of the Jacques Lake exploration camp.

Once the consolidated soil survey has been integrated with the local and regional scale geophysical data it is expected that the, already identified, differing mineralisation styles between Michelin and Rainbow will be more easily identified at the planning stage, which it is hoped will aid in cost effectively targeting additional mineralisation.

MOUNT ISA URANIUM PROJECTS, QUEENSLAND (82% to 100%)

Radiometric ore sorting tests for samples from the Odin, Bikini, Andersons, Watta, Duke Batman and Honey Pot deposits have now been completed by ANSTO with the final report being delivered to the company. The results are broadly in line with the testwork previously completed indicating that the material from all the deposits can be radiometrically sorted to some degree with no significant increase in acid consuming material reporting to leach. The leach testwork on the sorted samples shows that all the material can be alkaline leached, though with varying levels of recovery. Future testwork will be targeted at improving alkaline leach recoveries and refining the process flowsheet.

NIGER

Due to there being very limited prospect of any improvement in the security situation in Niger the company has taken the decision to return the 3 exploration licences (Tagait 4, Toulouk 1 and Teremazour 1) and one application (Ekazan 1) it had within the country back to the Government of Niger.

CORPORATE

Group cash and cash equivalents

At 30 June 2016, the Group's cash and cash equivalents were US$59.2M, an increase of US$37.8M from US$21.4M at 31 March 2016. Guidance previously provided was for the 30 June 2016 cash balance to be in the range of US$45M to US$65M. The Company has achieved its objective of being cash flow positive on an 'all in' basis for FY16 excluding one-off restructuring costs and capital management.

Paladin Energy Ltd. published this content on 18 July 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 18 July 2016 08:08:03 UTC.

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