Zambia studies on how to exploit uranium

The Zambian government has set up a team of experts to advise on how to exploit uranium slowly emerging as a considerable endowment for the country, Zambia Daily Mail reported on Thursday.

It quoted Ministry of Energy and Water Development Permanent Secretary Buleti Nsemukila as saying here on Wednesday that the experts drawn from the energy and mining industries will help develop a national policy on the exploitation of the country's energy mineral endowment.

Zambia already has a mining policy but the nature of uranium raises the need for a specific policy, he said.

"We need to address this issue very carefully hence the government's constituting a team of experts to provide guidance," Nsemukila said.

"Then, of course, we shall seek guidance from the International Atomic Energy Agency because even if we may not have a plan to process uranium, we still need to be sure that whatever exploitation of this mineral does not put us on the wrong side of international norms."

A number of junior miners with exploration projects in the country have announced significant uranium mineralization finds, mostly in the south of the country.

Source: Xinhua