Australian uranium mine developer Toro Energy announced in February that South Africa-based investment fund RealFin Capital Partners (RealCap) has subscribed early for shares, for a second time, under the broader $10-million equity subscription investment package, or subscription agreement, which was announced in December last year.

RealCap has confirmed to Toro that, in addition to the balance of the $1-million subscription owing for Tranche 2 shares, it wishes to accelerate its subscription for $500 000 of the $2-million Tranche 3 subscription shares ahead of the May 31 due date.

RealCap has now subscribed to a total of $3.5-million of the $5-million commitment outlined in the subscription agreement.

Accordingly, Toro will issue 23 474 178 ordinary shares at 6.39c a share on receipt of the $1.5-million, after which settlement is expected to occur within seven to 10 business days.

RealCap CEO Steve Doidge says the company is expecting a “major” rerating in the global uranium sector in the next 12 to 18 months, as per RealCap’s uranium investment thesis.

“We have high expectations of our holding in Toro Energy and the utmost confidence in the professionalism and capability of the Toro team and its MD Vanessa Guthrie,” he adds.

“As was the case with our previous subscription, we have accelerated a portion of our Tranche 3 investment as RealCap wishes to take advantage of what we perceive to be extremely attractive entry points for the uranium sector as a whole. RealCap looks forward to investing additional capital into Toro in the coming months.”

The positive subscription profile from RealCap parallels Toro’s ongoing advancement of the 100%-owned Wiluna uranium mine, in Western Australia, as well as the start of the government assessment and approval processes to mine additional deposits at Wiluna, namely Millipede and Lake Maitland.

Toro already has all the necessary government approvals to start mining from Wiluna’s Centipede and Lake Way deposits, and has a processing plant located at Centipede.

A mine scoping study completed by Australia-based engineering services provider Tetra-Tech Proteus, indicates that the Centipede, Lake Way, Millipede and Lake Maitland deposits can produce about 30-million pounds of uranium over a 16-year mine life at an average cost of $31/lb.

This pinpoints the proposed A$315-million Wiluna mine as one of the few uranium projects in the world capable of bringing new production to global markets at a time – the second half of the decade – when uranium prices are forecast to rise.