Paladin Energy has said that is it planning to scrap its plans to sell its stake in the prime African uranium mine after the company failed to attract an acceptable bid from the investors.

Paladin Energy, which is listed in Australian, will use about 88 million capital raising from shareholders to reduce its debt burden by about $US670 million. The company was in talks with two nuclear power companies for selling its
15-20 per cent in its Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia but it was not convinced about the value of the bids and decided to cancel the stake sale.

"Although, there remains interest in the asset, Paladin believes that the current weakness in the spot uranium price should not overly influence the valuation of a flagship asset such as Langer Heinrich," it said in a statement on Friday. The mine produced 5.3 million pounds, out of Paladin's 8.26 million pounds, of uranium and UBS had valued the mine at $US1.1 billion.

Experts say that the industry is facing difficulties since Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster more than two years ago and the price of uranium at about $US35 a pound, which is its lowest level in more than seven years.