PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Deep Yellow Resource’s acquisition of fellow-listed Vimy Resources earlier this year was just the first step in the company’s merger and acquisition strategy.
Speaking on the second day of Paydirt’s Africa Downunder conference, in Perth, Deep Yellow head of business development Andrew Micro said that the company had undertaken a comprehensive review of about 200 uranium projects globally.
The projects had been identified based on deposit quality, geography, operational metrics and potential shareholder creation, adding that work was ongoing to determine which of these assets would fit best within the Deep Yellow portfolio.
“It’s about getting the best fit to achieve our ultimate goal of being a tier one company with multi-jurisdictional assets, and with the aim of producing more than ten-million pounds of uranium a year in the future,” Micro told Mining Weekly Online on the sidelines of the conference.
While unwilling to divulge the company’s acquisition budget, Micro said that Deep Yellow would look at assets where the company could add value and with definite development options.
However, Micro noted that Deep Yellow’s primary focus would be on the development of its Tumas project, in Namibia, and its newly acquired Mulga Rock project, in Western Australia.
“Our work on these projects will take priority, as well as our exploration and consolidation strategy,” he said.
Deep Yellow earlier this year settled the acquisition of Vimy Resources, under which Vimy shareholders received 0.294 Deep Yellow shares for every Vimy share held.
The transaction placed Deep Yellow in a unique position as one of the few uranium companies globally with multi-asset exposure and development optionality to deliver its stated incentive-driven production target post-2025, given the necessary incentive uranium price. The completion of the merger has also consolidated a world-class exploration portfolio across two Tier-1 mining jurisdictions, particularly the highly prospective Alligator project, able to support the company’s ambitious strategy of establishing more than 10-million pounds a year of production.
Deep Yellow is now the only ASX-listed company with two advanced, near-development-ready uranium operations.
The Tumas project will complete its definitive feasibility Study (DFS) by end 2022 with potential to produce three-million pounds a year of uranium oxide (U3O8).
The Mulga Rock project has completed a DFS and Deep Yellow plans to revise and update this study to include base metal recovery optimisation work, detailed resource definition drilling work, and mining studies, with potential to produce 3.5-million pounds a year of U3O8.