Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed uranium hopeful Black Range Minerals has abandoned its plans to acquire conventional uranium assets in the US from private uranium miner Uranium One.
In October, Black Range entered into a binding agreement to acquire Uranium One’s Shootaring Canyon mill, and its related assets, as well as exploration and development projects in the US, in a deal valued at $10-million.
The junior said, at the time, that the mill acquisition would give Black Range the exclusive right to take full ownership of the Shootaring Canyon uranium processing facility, which was one of only three licensed conventional uranium mills in the US, along with surface stockpiles of uranium ore, with a historic mineral resource estimate of some 250 000 lb at a grade of 0.13% uranium oxide.
The agreement also provided Black Range with the right to earn full ownership of all Uranium One’s interests in other conventional mining assets in the US, covering some 77 000 acres.
However, Black Range said on Monday that its agreement with Uranium One had lapsed, after the two firms had been unable to agree on mutually acceptable terms to extend the deadline of the agreement.
The extension date had been necessary as the two companies had been unable to obtain several requisite regulatory approvals before the completion date.
Black Range told shareholders that the company’s focus would now return to obtaining the necessary permits at its own Hansen uranium deposit, in Colorado, US, while also progressing the commercialisation of the emerging Ablation processing technology, in which it holds a 50% interest.
The technology was expected to have widespread application in the uranium sector.