PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Uranium developer Toro Energy has acquired the Lake Maitland uranium project, in Western Australia, from TSX-listed Mega Uranium in a deal worth nearly A$37-million.

Toro, which is developing Western Australia’s first uranium mine, would acquire the project in exchange for 415-million fully paid ordinary shares, giving Mega a 28% shareholding in the ASX-listed company.

“The acquisition supports our ability to commercialise Wiluna. It will add to the project economics and extends the life of the mine beyond 20 years,” said Toro MD Vanessa Guthrie.

Speaking on a conference call, Guthrie noted that the Lake Maitland acquisition would increase the Wiluna project’s Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource base by some 42%, from 54-million pounds to 76-million pounds of uranium oxide (U₃O₈).

The acquisition would also improve the project’s overall economics by decreasing operating costs in the first ten years of operation.

“This is significant and important in being able to attract the project financing and investor interest in the broader Wiluna project,” Guthrie said.

She noted that Lake Maitland was considered a medium-term development option for Toro, and while it still required environmental approval, the project was well advanced as far as technical studies were concerned.

However, she noted that Toro’s first priority was to continue with the commercialisation of the Wiluna project.

“Mega Uranium is very committed to the Wiluna game plan and like us, continues to focus on bringing Wiluna into first production in a window period where uranium market supply is predicted to occur; beyond 2016. With Lake Maitland added into Wiluna, it enhances our long-term picture and gives us a longer term, more sustainable horizon for developing the project,” Guthrie said.

The Lake Maitland project is some 90 km from the proposed site of the Wiluna processing facility, and the project’s resource base includes a high-grade material comprising 6.4-million tons, grading 881 part per million, which was expected to improve the overall blended head-grade from the Wiluna deposits.

The acquisition was subject to a number of conditions, including shareholder approval, and option holders over the Lake Maitland project not exercising their pre-emptive rights.