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Message from Mike Leech, Managing Director
30 April 2008

In 2007, the economic fundamentals were in Rössing’s favour, in terms of both price and exchange rate. These factors resulted in an economically positive year for the company, although the overall performance could have been even better.

One of the limiting factors was that the bottom of the open pit became narrower. As a result, shovel access was limited – which, in turn, had a negative impact on our ability to blend ore for a steady plant feed with optimum grade and calcium carbonate (calc) characteristics. Early in the year, we also revised our ambitious production target from 4,049 tonnes of uranium oxide for the year to 3,000 tonnes, eventually achieving 3,046 tonnes.

Although our uranium production target was reduced, we either met or exceeded virtually every one of our other production targets, and in many cases matched original designed throughput rates and beat old records. These were all significant achievements and are a credit to the teams in all areas.Our current life-of-mine extension plans, coming as they do during this surge in uranium prices, have provided us with the ideal base on which to create and build on further growth and expansion opportunities. Accordingly, we have developed an extensive list of efficiency and expansion projects in which we have progressed to an order of magnitude stage, to enable us to select those to pursue in the next two years. These plans have been taken forward in two phases of public engagement as part of the Social and Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA) plan.

The first group of projects, which aim at commencement in 2008, were introduced for public input in mid 2007. The second phase of generally larger and more complex projects was introduced to the public in January 2008. The public’s response to the first phase of projects has been supportive.

The continuing high price of uranium is driving tremendous interest in the uranium potential of the Erongo Region in particular, and in Namibia as a whole. This brings with it significant opportunities for the Region in terms of employment, taxes, and general earnings growth, but at the same time places strain on most resources and services. In order to support this growth, the Chamber of Mines created a regional branch, an initiative which was jointly funded by Rössing and Langer Heinrich Uranium in 2007.

Subsequently, the Uranium Stewardship Committee – with a number of Technical Advisory Working Groups – was established to address the key issues relevant to the uranium mining industry in the Erongo Region. The Committee has gone from strength to strength, and now represents over 90% of the potential new mines and uranium exploration companies in Erongo. Amongst many other objectives, the Committee is also currently
focused on developing and agreeing to minimum standards in health, safety and environment issues, and on assisting with the SEIA.

Meanwhile, skills availability has been a problem area at Rössing for some years now, and the growth of mining in Erongo has exacerbated it through increased competition. In order to break the cycle of recruiting and poaching that develops under these conditions, a number of years ago Rössing set out to significantly increase its training and education activities. Our objective is to reach a point where 90% of vacancies are filled from our own development programmes. Funding and educational support have been increased for apprentices, graduates, employees, and employees’ children, while The Rössing Foundation also embarked on a programme of school and teacher support.

The company’s long serving and highly respected Chairman, Charles Kauraisa, retired towards the end of 2007. He served the company for over 25 years, 12 of which were as Chairman. Rehabeam Hoveka took over the role from 1 April 2008.

Sadly, 2007 saw the loss of another valuable long-serving member of the Board, John Kirkpatrick, who passed away. He served on the Rössing Board for nearly 30 years.

The year 2007 brought us many opportunities, the majority of which we managed to capture for the benefit of our stakeholders. There are even more opportunities ahead in 2008, but we need to keep in mind that the health and safety of employees receive priority to production.