PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Uranium hopeful Anatolia Energy on Thursday announced that it had reached a merger agreement with US-based Uranium Resources to create a larger diversified uranium development and exploration business.

Under the terms of the transaction, Uranium Resources would acquire full control of the ASX-listed Anatolia by offering shareholders 0.06579 of its own shares for every one Anatolia share held.

The offer valued Anatolia shares at A$0.115 a share, and represented a premium of 29.1% on the company’s closing price prior to the announcement of the merger, and a premium of 47.3% on the 30-day volume-weighted average price.

On the completion of the merger, Anatolia shareholders would hold a 40.6% interest in the combined entity, with Uranium Resources shareholders owning 59.4%.

Anatolia MD and CEO Paul Cronin said on Wednesday that the merger with Uranium Resources would provide a solution to Anatolia’s current objective of advancing its Temrezli project, in Turkey, into production as quickly as possible.

Cronin said that the merger brought with it the possibility of reducing up-front capital costs for the Temrezli project if the merged entity could successfully relocate and use Uranium Resources’ Rosita processing plant, in South Texas.

“The Rosita processing plant had major upgrades and additions in 2007/8, before construction was halted. It is fit for our Temrezli project and has the added benefit of already being designed and constructed with the ability to scale-up the production profile from 800 000 lb/y uranium oxide (U₃O₈), to 1.6-million pounds U₃O₈ a year, with some additional upgrades, which will accommodate potential future production from satellite operations that may feed into the Temrezli central processing plant.”

A February prefeasibility study into the Temrezli project, based on a central processing plant delivering 1.2-million tonnes a year of U₃O₈, estimated that a capital investment of $41-million would be required.

Besides the Temrezli operation, the combined entity would also hold some 17 000 acres of exploration ground in South Texas, 195 000 acres in New Mexico and 45 000 acres in central Turkey.

The combined group would have cash of more than $10.5-million on hand, and would have a quotation on the Nasdaq stock market, with a secondary listing on the ASX proposed.

Anatolia pointed out on Thursday that shareholders holding a combined 25.6% of the company have already given their support to the proposed merger, in the absence of a superior proposal.

The company has urged remaining shareholders to also vote in favour of the transaction.

The merger would also be subject to a number of other conditions, including bourse, regulatory and court approvals.