Alligator Energy adds to South Australian uranium portfolio as spot price holds gains
In return for the Blackbush and Plumbush resources, Alligator Energy will issue the project vendors 32% of its expanded capital.
Alligator Energy (ASX: AGE) will acquire a uranium resource in South Australia holding 46.6 million pounds of uranium oxide that has languished since its 2007 discovery.
The company will issue 679.6 million shares to privately owned Samphire Uranium to acquire the Blackbush and Plumbush resources, with Samphire’s owners ending up with 32% of the expanded capital of Alligator.
Samphire was previously owned by UraniumSA, the former listed company that discovered Blackbush along with the Plumbush uranium deposit in 2007.
UraniumSA became metals explorer Twenty Seven Co (ASX: TSC) in 2018.
Blackbush has an inferred mineral resource 64.5 million tonnes at 230 parts per million uranium oxide, for a contained 32.7Mlbs or 14,850t.
Plumbush’s inferred mineral resource stands at 21.8Mt at 292ppm for a contained 13.9Mlbs, or 6,300t.
The purchase also includes an exploration target with an estimated 20-30Mt of sediment hosted mineralisation.
Alligator has previously entered a farm-in agreement to acquire 100% of the Blue Lake uranium project in South Australia’s Cooper Basin, where it is looking for in-situ leach uranium targets.
This latest deal is another sign of revival in the Australian uranium sector, with the spot price rising by 37% since the beginning of 2020 – 34% of that in March and April.
The spot uranium price was sitting at US$33.50/lb last week.
Alligator looking to catch rising uranium prices
Alligator chief executive officer Greg Hall said the company will continue to advance Alligator Rivers and its Italian nickel and cobalt project as well as looking for other opportunities in the uranium space.
“As the recent uranium spot price increase has shown, there is great uncertainty around the required uranium supply growth over the medium-to-long term, which is expected to ultimately translate through to higher prices on a sustained basis,” he added.
Mr Hall said the work previously undertaken on the South Australian projects would make possible a move forward at the right time in the uranium price cycle as well as to expand the exploration potential.
He said that this acquisition “strongly” augments Alligator’s planned work on the Big Lake uranium project in the Cooper Basin.
Previously focused on Northern Territory
Alligator’s initial focus on uranium was the Alligator Rivers uranium province (ARUP) of West Arnhem, in a search for uranium deposits of similar mineralisation style and tenure to that of the world class Alligator Rivers uranium deposits of Jabiluka and Ranger, that were concealed beneath the covering sandstone.
ARUP covers more than 1,000sq km of exploration licences.
In February 2018, Alligator entered into a farm-in agreement to earn an interest in a nickel-cobalt opportunity in the Piedmont region of north-west Italy. The project sits within the historic Ivrea-Verbano mining district, with cobalt, nickel and copper mining taking place from the late 1800s until the end of WWII.