VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – West African country Niger has granted Canadian explorer GoviEx Uranium a permit to exploit the Madaouela project in the Agadez region, reports news agency Reuters.
Subsidiary GoviEx Niger Holdings would be allowed to exploit uranium for investments worth $676-million at the project.
Niamey had also granted four permits for uranium exploration to GoviEx Niger Holdings and two other companies, said the statement, which was read on public television.
Despite the news, GoviEx on Tuesday also announced that it had initiated a strategic realignment plan to aggressively reduce operating and sustaining costs through a programme of targeted compensation adjustments, nonessential retrenchments, cut-backs in overheads, and other cost-cutting measures.
These changes were forecast to reduce operating costs by about 50%, advised GoviEx.
The company stated that its senior leadership team had agreed to a 20% pay cut and benefits in an effort to reposition the company for future growth. In lieu of the foregone compensation, GoviEx senior executives had been granted a total of 2.8-million stock options with an exercise price of $0.1125 apiece, that may vest on January 1, 2017, subject to certain conditions. The options have an expiry date of December 31, 2017.