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The Government has commenced exploration to determine the extent of uranium deposits in the country for possible commercial exploitation, a Cabinet Minister said yesterday.

Late last year, the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation acting general manager Farai Karonga was quoted saying the company was searching for partners to explore and develop uranium deposits in the northern region of the country.

Mr Karonga said the ZMDC anticipated to conclude a deal by the end of the first quarter of this year after an earlier agreement with Hong Kong-based CNNC Overseas Uranium Limited had collapsed. “We’re seeking investors that may be interested in enhancing the deposits and even go further to exploiting and developing the mineral deposits,” Karonga said then.

And in response to a question why the Government was yet to start exploiting uranium for electricity generation purposes, Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa told the Senate that progress had been made.

“There is some exploration work to establish the size of the reserves,” he said. “The exploration that is taking place now is to establish the size of the resource and the confidence levels of that resource, once that is done we can see whether it is economically viable to mine.”

Minister Chidhakwa, however, did not reveal who had partnered the ZMDC in the venture since it had been on the hunt for partners. Uranium is used for many processes such as fuelling nuclear power plants, colourants and manufacturing armoured tanks.

In Zimbabwe exploitation of uranium could vastly improve electricity supply, which has been erratic over the years. – New Ziana.