INTERVIEW-UPDATE 1-West Australian Metals gets Areva interest

* Areva interested in Marenica uranium project

* Has held "a couple of discussions" with Areva

(Adds further details)

By Julie Crust

LONDON, June 24 (Reuters) - West Australian Metals Ltd WME.AX said on Wednesday it has held discussions with the world's biggest nuclear power company Areva (CEPFi.PA) about its key uranium project in Namibia.

West Australian WME.DE Chief Executive John Young told Reuters that Areva would probably be keen to expand its presence in uranium-rich Namibia given the extent of the French company's Namibian investments.

West Australian's major asset is the 80-pct owned Marenica uranium project, immediately north of Areva's large Trekkopje mine, which the French state-owned company acquired when it bought UraMin Inc in 2007 for $2.5 billion.

"They are interested in our project," Young said in an interview, without specifying the nature of their discussions. He noted, however, that Areva are spending over $1 billion to develop the neighbouring Trekkopje project.

"It's a lot of capital going into a project with a 14-year mine life. They will be looking for additional resources," he said.

Namibia is also home to the Rio Tinto-operated (RIO.L) (RIO.AX) Rossing mine and Paladin Energy Ltd's (PDN.AX) Langer Heinrich project which together account for about 7-10 percent of world uranium production.

AIM-listed Polo Resources Ltd (3PO.L) acquired a 12 percent stake in West Australian earlier this month. Polo's chairman Stephen Dattels was the founder of UraMin and was associated with the sale to Areva.

Polo also holds a stake in Extract Resources Ltd (EXT.AX), where Kalahari Minerals (KAH.L) has a 40-percent interest. Extract is developing the world class Rossing South project.

NAMIBIAN INTEREST

Marenica's current resource estimate is a small 34 million pounds of uranium oxide (U308), but investors are likely to be interested in the project's potential to become another major discovery.

West Australian hopes to put out an updated resource statement in early September.

"There is a lot of interest in Namibia," Young said, citing the planned visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday.

China and India are also interested and Young said West Australian had been approached by two Indian companies in the last couple of weeks.

A global shift toward nuclear power is prompting countries to seek long-term access to tight supplies of uranium, and China and India look to be the next players to get in on the action. [nN16266657]

(Editing by Paul Hoskins and David Cowell)

((julie.crust@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 3847)) Keywords: WESTAUSTRALIANMETALS/

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