CHAMWE KAIRA
The external debts on the books of Paladin Energy, which owns the Langer Heinrich, are the secured debt facility entered into with Nedbank CIB and Macquarie Bank Limited.
This was contained in the company’s quarterly cash flow report for the period ending 31 December 2024.
The facilities are a US$100 million amortising term loan (term facility) with a 5-year term and a US$50 million revolving credit facility (revolving facility) with a three-year term (with two options to extend by 12 months).
CNNC Overseas Limited (CNOL) acquired their interest in Langer Heinrich Uranium (LHU) in 2014 and were assigned 25% of the intercompany loans previously provided by Paladin to LHU as part of this transaction.
“CNOL has not provided any funding directly to Paladin, and since 2014 has provided only US$984 million in funding directly to LHU,” Paladin said.
Paladin said a total of US$659.1 million has been provided to LHU by Paladin and its wholly owned subsidiary companies (US$576.2 million) and CNOL (US$82.9 million).
“Repayment of shareholder loans is dependent on LHU generating sufficient free cash flows to repay the relevant loans. The shareholder loans are not guaranteed by Paladin and are unsecured.
The undrawn amount of the CNOL facility is US$89,000. Paladin’s shareholder loans to LHU are eliminated on accounting consolidation,” the company said.
In terms of CNOL shareholder loans, the loan of US$63.9 million will mature on 17 December 2027.
Currently, no interest is due.
Another loan worth US$18 million will mature on 17 December 2027 with interest of 10% plus a 2% administration fee per annum.
Another loan worth US$0.98 million will mature on 1 July 2026 with an interest of +4% and an administrative fee of +2.5% per annum.
Paladin Energy is expecting to achieve a production run rate of 6 million pounds per annum at the Langer Heinrich Mine in the Erongo region by the end of the 2025 calendar year.
The mine produced 826 346 pounds of uranium oxide in the 2025 financial year as of 31 October 2024.
The company said production to 30 October 2024 has been lower than planned, primarily due to ore grade variability in the stockpiled ore processed and disruptions to the supply of water from NamWater.
Langer Heinrich Mine revised production guidance for 2025 is 3 to 3.6 million pounds of uranium oxide.
During the COP28 and COP29 meetings, 31 countries, including the US, Canada, the UK and France, pledged to triple nuclear power capacity by 2050.
Chinese utilities are expected to become the largest consumers of uranium by 2028.
Paladin noted a 40-million-pound supply-demand deficit for 2024.
Paladin spent US$120 million on its restart project and money was allocated to plant refurbishment and debottlenecking to improve throughput, completed on time and within the cost forecast.
