News

May 12, 2008

Oklo Uranium Goes Tiger Hunting In Mali

By Alastair Ford

What’s an aspiring Africa-focussed uranium exploration company to do if it can’t pick up ground in Namibia, the continent’s second most prolific uranium country, due to excessive staking and a new moratorium on pegging ground there? One answer, perhaps, would be to look to Niger, the continent’s most prolific of all. In Niger there’s a long history of uranium mining and several companies already on the ground. But Niger’s not looking overly friendly at the moment to those with really big ambitions, because the licenses there are parceled up so small that there aren’t many opportunities for economy of scale for big game hunters.

For Australian-listed Oklo Uranium, a junior explorer with aspirations to list on London and a shareholder register to back up that aspiration, the real answer lies in the old science of look-alikes. There’s plenty of mining and uranium experience on Oklo’s board, so the directors certainly know what to go after. And across the border from Niger, to the west in Mali, Oklo has seized the opportunity to pick up a huge parcel of ground that bears more than a passing geological resemblance to the...