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urAniuM

Creating history in the Athabasca

istory will be created this month when and Oliver Kreuzer (non-executive direc- do through almost any existing Australian
H92 Energy Ltd (92E) becomes the first tors) and Andy Wilde (exploration man- player.”
new uranium listing on the ASX in more than ager). All have extensive experience in the 92E holds three tenements – Gemini,
a decade. uranium sector across a number of jurisdic- Clover and Tower – covering about 600sq
Last month 92E took the maximum sub- tions and project types. km in the Athabasca. One of the company’s
scriptions possible for a $7 million IPO and Lancaster is best known for her role as first tasks post listing will be to fly modern
is now tentatively scheduled to join the company secretary and corporate affairs geophysics over those high-grade pros-
bourse on April 9. manager at Namibian-focused explorer pects to confirm its modelling and to gener-
It will be the first uranium float since the Extract Resources where she played a key ate targets for future drilling campaigns.
Fukushima disaster which sent yellowcake role in the company’s eventual $2.2 billion “We chose these areas because our par-
prices horribly south in early 2011. Canada- takeover by China General Nuclear Power ticular focus is on conformity-style uranium
focused 92E will also find itself in rare com- Group. deposits and we focused there because
pany as the only pure exploration-based Wilde previously held senior exploration that is generally the highest grade you
play among a small group of uranium sto- roles at both Paladin Energy Ltd and Deep can get, typically 17-18% uranium grade,”
ries still trading on the ASX. Yellow Ltd, while Kreuzer is a key advisor Pearce said.
Speaking to Paydirt last month between to the International Atomic Energy Author- “Our aim is to be drilling by this northern
closing the IPO and finalising the process ity. Canada-based Blower is the nominee summer. In the Athabasca you’ve got two
to list on the ASX, 92E chairman Richard director of 92E’s largest shareholder, TSX- seasons, so we’ll be there for the winter
Pearce was excited about delivering a new listed IsoEnergy Ltd, where he currently drilling campaign which will probably be a
investment opportunity to the market not holds the position of vice-president explo- much larger campaign. We’ll focus on prob-
been seen since the uranium boom of the ration. ably two of the areas initially and then the
late 2000s. Pearce said the company had no con- deeper deposits once we’ve done the anal-
“We’re offering the chance for investors cerns about entering into the unknown both ysis of those initial areas.
to buy into uranium on the ASX with a Ca- in terms of being a fresh story in the some- “There’s a fairly defined programme of
nadian Athabasca focus, which in our view times maligned uranium sector and offering work, certainly for the first 12 months or so,
is unique both in terms of its actual focus a rare investment proposition into Canada’s and then like any exploration company it’s
and being a fresh story for the uranium sec- prolific Athabasca Basin, which supplies about feedback to determine what happens
tor,” Pearce said. about 20% of the world’s yellowcake. next. Frankly, there’s probably enough drill
“We haven’t had a new uranium listing for “We’ll be the only solely uranium, targets to keep us going for several sea-
an awfully long time, but the timing seems Athabasca-focused, Australian-listed com- sons from what we already understand.”
to be perfect, both when you look at macro pany, so it’s a different model and one we Pearce also believes his company is
trends but also those short-term market op- believe will get a lot of traction,” he said. coming to market at a great time in the cy-
portunities. We’re very excited by that and “We took a lot of soundings before we cle with many countries announcing plans
hopefully the industry as a whole will be as decided to go public with this sort of mod- to have a zero-carbon future by as early as
well.” el. We’ve done a lot of work technically to 2040.
Pearce has a long and successful back- identify a number of different opportunities “Even for an exploration company start-
ground in uranium, having initially found as a private company whereby we really fo- ing out today, there’s a great window over
his way into the sector during the decom- cused in on the highest prospectivity being the next several years to discover and go
missioning of the Seawater mill in the US the Athabasca. And the feedback we got through the development cycle to be there
before participating in the floats of Nova En- from our partners in Canada and IsoEner- and ready for that pick-up in demand,” he
ergy (later taken over by Toro Energy Ltd) gy, who will be our biggest shareholder af- said. “We think we’ve got the timing right,
and Wildhorse Energy. ter listing, was that Australia is a good place but it’s got to be supported by a strong eq-
Joining Pearce for the ride at 92E will be for Canadians to look to invest, but also for uites market and we think the timing is spot
Siobhan Lancaster (chief executive), Matt Australian investors looking to get exposure on for that.”
Gauci (executive director), Steve Blower to the Athabasca, which is very difficult to
– Michael Washbourne

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