Impressive recent market debuts by uranium juniors have added further impetus to a resources-driven economic growth cycle that shows few signs of slowing down.
Impressive recent market debuts by uranium juniors have added further impetus to a resources-driven economic growth cycle that shows few signs of slowing down.
One of the more successful recent listings was that of the aptly named Uranium King, which listed earlier this week at a 92 per cent premium to its 25-cent issue price after it closed its IPO oversubscribed.
The company issued 26 million shares raising $6.5 million, of which $5.2 million would be used to fund the exploration of uranium projects in the US.
Uranium King was incorporated in April as a public company for the purposes of acquiring the exploration assets of US-based Mineral Energy and Technology (METCO) Ltd.
The assets acquired from METCO include two exploration projects, Rio Puerco in New Mexico and Apex-Lowboy projects in Nevada, which between them contain 6.1 million pounds U308 of JORC inferred uranium resources and have uranium grades of 0.12 per cent and 0.07 per cent respectively.
Uranium King non-executive director Jim Malone told WA Business News a major drawcard was that the company’s assets were located in a country which had the greatest demand for uranium, and where the government was actively supporting the mining of uranium.
“It is a country that is encouraging uranium mining so it doesn’t have the issues a lot of Australian miners have, wherein the likes of Western Australia they have banned [uranium] mining,” Mr Malone said. “Now this may change in the future [in Australia]…but currently it’s banned, while the US is pro-uranium mining.”
Mr Malone said Uranium King’s short-term aim was for the company to be valued at $100 million, and for mining to begin in the next 24 months.
According to the independent geological expert’s report in the company’s prospectus, both projects are in locations that have historically witnessed commercial uranium production, with Rio Puerco, in particular, well documented and highly regarded as a world-class location for uranium mining.
“Based upon the resource identified to date and its implied geometry, the claims are of sufficient lateral extent to contain an exploration target of a size at least three-fold above the resource defined to date,” the geologist said.
METCO Ltd principals Karl Meyers, Michael Duncan and Sam Sapper have become executive directors of Uranium King with respective roles of senior technical adviser, operations manager and exploration manager.
The three men have been exploring for uranium in the US since the early 1950s, and this level of experience highlighting their depth of knowledge will be a key factor in the company’s future, according to Mr Malone.
Chairman of Catalyst Metals Ltd and Discovery Capital Ltd, Howard Dawson, is Uranium King’s chairman. Both Mr Malone and Mr Dawson are also directors of Latin Gold Ltd, previously named Westmag Ltd.
Meanwhile, another junior explorer, Uranium Oil and Gas Ltd, is looking to raise up to $8 million through its IPO to fund exploration at a number of its projects over the next two years.
The company has an extensive tenement package in WA, which is prospective for uranium, copper, gold and molybdenum.
It also has interests in two petroleum permit applications and one granted petroleum permit.
Uranium Oil and Gas expects to begin trading on the ASX on September 22.
