The company acquired the permit in late 2017 from African Energy Resources, and it included the Njame and Gwabe deposits. Both assets, GoviEx said, were subsequently included in the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the company’s Mutanga uranium project.

Due to the smaller scale and higher cost nature of the two deposits, they were scheduled to be mined in the later stages of the PEA and were not included in the mine plan, GoviEx said.

The Vancouver-based uranium explorer said Njame and Gwabe’s exclusion is expected to have low to no impact on the project economics.

Unfair decision
Since acquiring the Chirundu mining permit, GoviEx said it had “ensured all statutory reports and payments” were made. It also noted it had expanded its community and social responsibility programs to cover the villages within the Chirundu licenses, including the reconstruction of a school and the commencement of an adult education program.

“We are disappointed by the decision made by the Mining Cadastre with regards the Chirundu license and do not believe this decision is fair or in the interests of our Zambian stakeholders,” chief executive Daniel Major said in the statement.

Under the Zambian Mines and Minerals Development Act of 2015, GoviEx has thirty days to appeal the government’s decision.

The news comes only a day after the miner highlighted significant gold anomalies identified near its Falea uranium-copper-silver project in Mali.

The find, the company said, shows the potential extensions of the Sirabaya West and the Siribaya-Bambadinka gold trends through, and possibly intersecting within the Falea project.