Uranium Energy acquires exploration projects from Rio Tinto

The company has acquired a 60% equity stake in the Henday Lake joint venture, 100% of the Milliken project, and a 50% equity stake in the Carswell joint venture project. With this transaction, UEC has added an additional 44 444 acres (17 986 ha.) of prospective ground in the Athabasca Basin to its existing portfolio of 1.09 million acres (441 771 ha).

Transaction components

• Henday project is less than 5 km north of the Roughrider project and close to support infrastructure offering regional synergies with Roughrider, as well as the other projects in the Eastern Athabasca Hub that UEC has assembled over the last 12 months as part of the UEX acquisition.
• Carswell project is located just north of the past-producing Cluff Lake operation and has uranium showings in drill holes, trenches, outcrop, and boulders that are consistent with the mineralisation types found at the former Cluff Lake operation. Carswell is in close proximity to Shea Creek, where the company has a 49.075% interest in the Shea Creek deposits (Anne, Kianna, 58B, and Collette).
• Milliken project represents the western extension of UEC’s Hidden Bay project’s Wolf Lake trend that has multiple uranium showings over 19 km.
• The CAN$1.5 million transaction was fully funded with UEC’s cash on hand. UEC had CAN$125.4 million of cash and liquid assets, no debt, as of the company’s latest quarterly filing for the period ending 30 April 2023.

Amir Adnani, President and CEO of UEC, commented:

“This is our third acquisition in the Athabasca Basin in the last 12-months and builds on the landmark acquisitions of UEX and the Roughrider project. This acquisition represents an important component in our strategy to assemble a premier North American uranium portfolio, featuring near-term US production, Canadian development-stage projects including joint ventures, and a pipeline of exploration projects with excellent growth potential. Since the acquisitions of Roughrider and UEX last year, the Canadian team has issued technical reports on the Roughrider, Horseshoe-Raven, and the Shea Creek deposits. We have also added James Hatley as Vice President Production, Canada, to the team to augment the advancement of our Canadian assets towards production.”

Chris Hamel, Vice President Exploration, Canada, stated:

“UEC is pleased to add these strategically important projects to our existing Athabasca portfolio. All three projects exhibit the features we seek when acquiring quality exploration assets, including uranium anomalism and hydrothermal alteration. In addition, these projects exhibit excellent prospective geology with minimal to no sandstone cover that will result in lower exploration costs and shorter timelines to discovery. With our operator status and the data already collected on Henday, Carswell and Milliken, these projects offer strong potential synergies to our existing portfolio in the Athabasca Basin.”

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/finance-business/24082023/uranium-energy-acquires-exploration-projects-from-rio-tinto/