Uvre expands uranium portfolio in South Australia with strategic exploration licences
Uvre (ASX: UVA) has announced it is adding two new exploration licences in South Australia’s prime uranium territory to its significant global portfolio of energy and critical metals.
The Australian junior, best known to date for its work at the East Canyon uranium-vanadium project in Utah and the South Pass lithium project in Wyoming, has entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100% of the issued capital in Uranium SA and its three uranium exploration prospects.
The two new licences (ELA 2024/0001 and ELA 2024/0003) cover 521 square kilometres of prospective ground within and nearby to SA’s Frome basin, host to several significant uranium deposits and operating uranium mines.
Key client support
To support the new acquisitions, Uvre has successfully undertaken a $1.25 million capital raising that also added new strategic shareholders onto the register who have sophisticated capital markets experience and strong mining industry connections.
The raising has solidified Uvre’s cash balance to in excess of $3.5m for future exploration activities.
The acquisition and capital raising is strongly supported by Uvre’s major current shareholders including key clients of JP Equity, the lead broker to the company’s $6m initial public offering in April 2022.
“These South Australian uranium projects are an exciting addition to Uvre’s growing portfolio of critical minerals,” managing director Pete Woods said.
“SA is Australia’s premier uranium mining jurisdiction and we look forward to starting exploration on the projects as soon as possible.”
“We welcome the new shareholder group and appreciate the support of the new and existing shareholders as we continue to build value through systematic exploration on our current projects and strategic asset acquisitions.”
“Uvre has a very healthy cash balance, tight capital structure and are motivated to advance the assets rapidly as the uranium resurgence and search for uranium assets across the globe intensifies.”
Prime uranium region
The Lake Frome region of South Australia is Australia’s premier sandstone-hosted uranium province and hosts Australia’s only two operating in situ recovery uranium mines at Beverley and Honeymoon, as well as many other deposits and prospects.
Both an airborne electromagnetic survey flown over the 178 sq km ELA 2024/0001 licence and subsequent report published jointly by Geoscience Australia and the Geological Survey of SA highlighted the potential of this area for sandstone-hosted uranium deposits.
Recent reports by exploration companies working in the Blanchewater area have also highlighted the area’s potential, with a discovery in the Blanchewater palaeovalley at MacDonnell Creek.
Major fault systems, which have controlled uranium movement and deposition underlining the potential of this area to form sandstone-hosted uranium deposits, have also been mapped.
Strong neighbourhood
The 343 sq km ELA 2024/0003 application area is also located in the Frome Basin and is contiguous and to the north of Havilah Resources (ASX: HAV) Curnamona province tenements.
The exploration license is located in the eastern Lake Frome region known to be prospective for roll-front type uranium mineralisation emplaced within sediments of the Tertiary Lake Eyre Basin.
It covers the tertiary sediments overlying the mesozoic Frome embayment that hosts widespread uranium mineralisation over the Lake Namba palaeochannel and is located around 100km north of Boss Energy’s (ASX: BOE) Gould’s Dam Uranium discovery as well as numerous other active projects.
The company is targeting sandstone-hosted uranium deposits generated by reduction-oxidation chemical reactions whereby uranium is dissolved and transported in oxidised groundwaters and is reduced to form uranium oxides.