Executive Summary
Niger Uranium Limited (LON:URU) was incorporated in May 2007 by UraMin Inc (\UraMin\) and NWT Uranium Inc (\NWT\) as a uranium exploration and development company, registered in the British Virgin Islands. Following incorporation, the Company agreed to acquire NWT's Nigerien exploration properties (the Irhazer and In Gall prospects), which are located in the same geographic area as Niger's two producing Areva uranium mines. In addition, the Company agreed to acquire UraMin's Nigerien exploration properties (the Kamas 1, 2, 3 and 4 and Dabala 3 and 4 prospects). It floated on AIM in September 2007.
Since flotation Niger Uranium has:
- Commenced exploration in Niger and produced a SAMREC compliant inferred resource of 4.4Mlb U3O8e @ 141ppm at its In Gall prospect. [1] . See the Niger Assets thread for further details
- Acquired 27.7m shares in Kalahari Minerals (AIM:KAH)
- Acquired 4.4m shares of UrAmerica plc (currently an unlisted private company) & attaching warrants [2] . See the UrAmerica thread for further details
- Acquired a 64% interest in Namakwa Uranium, owner of the Henkries prospect. Niger Uranium has defined a SAMREC compliant resource of 4.5Mlb @ 432ppm U3O8e in the Henkries Central portion of the prospect. [3] . See the Henkries project thread for further details.
Note that at the time of writing the value of Niger Uranium's holding of Kalahari shares, alone, significantly exceeded its market capitalisation. Kalahari's major asset, in turn, is its holding of shares in Extract Resources (ASX:EXT) [this also exceeds Kalahari's market cap at the time of writing]. Hence a significant part of the value that may be ascribed to Niger Uranium rests on the value of Extract. Discussion of Extract and related companies can be found on The Extract Complex thread.
Company History
Uramin
Uramin (UMN) was a uranium explorer, with its principal asset being the Trekkopje deposit in Namibia. The measured & indicated U resource for Trekkopje prior to the sale was 110Mlbs at an average grade of 149ppm (see http://fool.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200705081423372268W.html ). NB anyone investing in mining companies should understand the distinction between resources & reserves and between measured, indicated & inferred estimates – and watch out for their use in RNSs & documents miners publish. The terms are explained well here: http://www.cim.org/committees/CIMDefStds_Dec11_05.pdf
Uramin was bought by Areva for a cash price of more than US$2.5bn. This was…
