Paladin boost from the IAEA on Malawi uranium project

Paladin Resources' progress towards mining uranium in Malawi by the end of next year appears to have received a boost from positive findings by an IAEA team

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has sanctioned uranium mining in Malawi after the grouping was impressed by procedures the country took to license Paladin Resources Inc. (TSX, ASX:PDN) which wants to mine uranium at its Kayelekera Uranium mine in the northern region district of Karonga.

IAEA Head of the Africa Section Mulugeta Amha, accompanied by a consultant in International Nuclear Law, Odetta Jankowitsch-Prevor, visited Malawi a fortnight ago and visited Paladin's Kayelekera Uranium project and was impressed with measures the company has put in place to safeguard lives of people surrounding the mine and hinted that the measures were in conformity with international standards.

Malawi's minister of Energy and Mining Henry Chimunthu Banda confirmed with the local press the visit by the IAEA officials.

"Well they were here, yes, but details of their mission were not supposed to be public," Banda told The Daily Times. "I was informed that they commended us for the procedures we followed before we licensed Paladin Africa and the measures that had been put in place to protect communities from effects of uranium."

This is a timely token to Paladin Resources whose mining endeavors at Kayelekera have met stiff resistance from the country's non-governmental organizations who have dragged the company as well as the Malawi government to court. The NGOs are against Paladin progressing with the project unless it re-visits its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, which the NGOs allege has shortfalls and does not explicitly say how it would protect the people around the mine from radioactive materials emanating from uranium mining.

The standoff between the NGOs and Paladin forced the company to send its Chairman Rick Crabb and its Australian legal counsel Michael Blakiston into the country to discuss and reach a consensus with the NGOs.

"I have traveled to Malawi with our Australian legal counsel, Michael Blakiston, to meet you and representatives of the other civil society organizations, to complete the open and good faith discussions that have been underway for the past two weeks, to amicably resolve our differences," reads part of a letter Crabb e-mailed Undule Mwakasungura, director of Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, one of the organizations opposed to uranium mining.

However, the NGOs did not grant Crabb and the company's legal counsel an audience arguing they were incensed with the company's lack of seriousness in the matter. The NGOs say Paladin's Managing Director John Borshoff was adversarial when he said development work would continue at Kayelekera without addressing the concerns raised by the NGOs. The statement was made when the two were exploring ways of sorting their differences outside court.

But Crabb said in the e-mail the statement by Borshoff was made before the parties started their dialogue.

"The statement to the effect that the project would proceed was merely reflecting the sentiment also expressed by the civil society that they did not wish to completely stop the project," said Crabb. "Since the honourable members instigated discussions between Paladin and the civil society, Paladin has not made any comment to the press."

He conceded that circumstance surrounding uranium mining at Kayelekera were damaging to Paladin. The miner wants to start operations in the third quarter of 2008.