Cameco has reached an agreement with BHP Billiton to acquire the Yeelirrie uranium project in Western Australia for $430 million. Yeelirrie is a near-surface calcrete-style deposit, amenable to open pit mining techniques.
Yeelirrie is one of Australia's largest undeveloped uranium deposits and is located about 650 kilometres northeast of Perth and about 750 kilometres south of Cameco's Kintyre exploration project.
"Yeelirrie represents an attractive deposit that fits well with Cameco's vision and corporate strategy," said Cameco's president and CEO Tim Gitzel. "We are pleased to add this promising deposit to our suite of uranium assets and look forward to advancing this property through our process for assessing development projects."
Cameco expects the transaction to close by the end of 2012, subject to the receipt of approvals from the government of Western Australia and the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board. Upon closing, stamp tax duty of about $22 million will be payable by Cameco to the government of Western Australia.
A historic estimate of the mineral content of Yeelirrie was prepared for BHP Billiton in June 2012 by an international mining consulting firm. The historic estimate indicates that Yeelirrie hosts measured and indicated mineral resources of approximately 139 million pounds of U3O8, with an average grade of approximately 0.13% U3O8 and inferred resource of approximately 5 million pounds at 0.10% U3O8. This historic estimate employs resource categories from the Australasian Code for Reporting of Identified Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (the JORC Code). The due diligence review schedule did not allow sufficient time for a qualified person to classify the historic estimate as current mineral resources for purposes of National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projec ts (NI 43-101) and Cameco is not treating the historic estimate as current mineral resources.
Source Cameco