PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Uranium producer Peninsula Energy has raised A$8.5-million through a share placement, and flagged a possible A$5-million raising through a share purchase plan (SPP), to fund its streamlined strategy for the Lance project, in the US.
Peninsula told shareholders this week that 17-million ordinary shares were issued to institutional and sophisticated investors, at 50c each.
In addition to the placement, Peninsula is hoping to raise as much as A$5-million through a similarly priced SPP, allowing shareholders to subscribe for up to A$15 000 in new shares.
MD and CEO Gus Simpson said that the funding would enable the company to continue the production ramp-up at Lance, while implementing a more streamlined operating strategy to meet deliveries under existing contracts, and to provide certainty on the convertible loans.
The streamlined operational strategy would see some 500 000 lb of uranium oxide delivered in the next 12 months to meet existing contract deliveries, and would provide revenues of some A$36.3-million in 2017.
Under the strategy, Peninsula would defer Stage 2 capital expenditure at Lance until the receipt of additional contracts, and would create a platform for rapid production expansion.
Stage 2 was expected to ramp up production to 1.2-million pounds of uranium oxide a year, while Stage 3 would increase production to 2.3-million pounds a year.
The streamlined strategy was necessitated by the current uranium market conditions, Simpson said, and would remain in place until uranium prices normalised.