One country’s nuclear crisis is another’s opportunity. China Guangdong Nuclear Power first made an offer for London-listed Kalahari Minerals in March, at 290p a share. A few days later, disaster struck at Fukushima in Japan. China slowed but did not stop its nuclear policy in response. Now CGNPC has returned with a recommended offer 16 per cent lower, valuing Kalahari at £632m. Success could improve CGNPC’s chances of buying the remainder of Extract Resources, the Australian miner in which Kalahari has a 43 per cent stake.
China’s desire for resource security will probably trump any reservations it might have about nuclear power. China has 14 working reactors, another 27 under construction – about 40 per cent of the global total – and 50 more on the drawing board, according to the World Nuclear Association. Extract’s chief asset is the Husab uranium project in Namibia, the world’s fourth largest deposit of the mineral. That should keep plants ticking over for a while.
The offer looks a done deal for CGNPC unless Rio Tinto weighs in. Rio owns 14 per cent of Extract and 11 per cent of Kalahari. It has a mine in the Husab ore body. But Rio has just won a C$654m bid for Hathor Exploration that gives it a substantial toehold in Canada’s Athabasca basin, the source of about 20 per cent of the world’s uranium.