First Reserve buys stake in Harmony uranium assets

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private equity firm First Reserve and two partners will buy a stake in a uranium and gold subsidiary of Harmony Gold Mining Co Ltd (HARJ.J), First Reserve said on Thursday.

First Reserve, along with AMCI Capital and Pamodzi Investment Holdings of South Africa, will own a 60 percent interest in the uranium and gold assets known as the Cooke Section.

Harmony announced last month that it had entered into an agreement with Pamodzi to put those assets into a new company valued at US$420 million.

Cooke would be one of the 10 largest producers of uranium in operation, with a planned production level of over 2.2 million pounds per year, according to First Reserve, which specializes in the energy industry.

Worldwide demand for uranium is expected to increase from 175 million pounds in 2007 to between 235 million to 275 million pounds by 2020 as a result of growth in nuclear power generation assets, First Reserve said.

The Cooke assets include three operational gold mines and a gold milling plant.

(Reporting by Jonathan Keehner; editing by John Wallace and Dave Zimmerman)