News

February 18, 2009

With A Bit Of Help From A Taiwanese Committee VANE’s Uranium Projects Could Leap Straight To The Feasibility Stage

By Alastair Ford

Matt Idiens is fresh off the plane from Taiwan when Minesite catches up with him in a pub near his office in Kensington for an update on VANE Minerals and a spot of fish and chips. Taiwan is a bit off the beaten track for VANE Minerals, you might think, given that the company operates a silver-gold mine in Mexico, and is currently hanging its hat on the potential for uranium development on its portfolio of properties in Arizona and Utah. But it’s on account of that very same American uranium that Matt took flight to Taiwan, for the simple reason that much of VANE’s portfolio was once owned by Taiwan Power. That was back in the 1990s, though, when US$25 uranium was a distant dream. In the context of that price perhaps it came as no surprise to anyone when the Taiwanese walked away. But not after they’d done quite a bit of work on the ground that VANE now holds.

Matt would clearly quite like sight of this work, as he estimates it could help move VANE straight to the feasibility stage on at least some of its potential developments. He describes his talks with the Chinese as “extremely cordial”, though it quickly becomes apparent that the data hasn’t yet been made available. On the other hand, as Matt points out, VANE, backed as it is by cashflow from its operating Diablito Mine, is under no compulsion to sit still. Serving to emphasise that point, at...