REG - Aura Energy Limited - Results of Annual General Meeting

Aura EnergyAnnouncement

27/11/2024 08:15

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RNS Number : 8482N  Aura Energy Limited  27 November 2024

                                                                                                                        27 November 2024

 

 Result of Annual General Meeting

Aura Energy Limited (ASX: AEE, AIM: AURA) ("Aura", the "Company") advises
Resolutions 1 to 14 as set out in the Notice of Annual General Meeting of
Shareholders dated 25 October 2024 were carried by poll at the Company's
Annual General Meeting of Shareholders held yesterday.

 

As less than 25% of votes cast on Resolution 1 were against the adoption of
the 2024 Remuneration Report, Resolution 15, the conditional spill resolution,
was not required to be put  to the meeting and accordingly was withdrawn.

 

In accordance with ASX Listing Rule 3.13.2 and section 251AA of the
Corporations Act, details of the proxies received, votes cast and the outcome
in respect of each resolution, please refer
to: http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/8482N_1-2024-11-27.pdf
(http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/8482N_1-2024-11-27.pdf)

 

At the AGM the Company's Chairman, Phillip Mitchell, made the following
statement:

 

Good afternoon,

Thank you for joining us today, either in the room in person in Perth, Western
Australia - or somewhere around the world, connecting via Zoom.

Welcome to the 2024 Annual General Meeting for Aura Energy. I'm your Chair,
Phil Mitchell.

To say this past year has been transformative for Aura Energy would be an
understatement - it has been a critical year for our Company, in more ways
than one.

Beyond the terrific progress made across our project portfolio, centred on the
near-term development at our flagship Tiris Uranium Project in Mauritania,
we've enhanced our team locally and globally to deliver on our clean energy
goals.

Importantly, we welcomed Aura's new leader to the team, with Andrew Grove
joining Aura as Managing Director and CEO. It's been impressive to watch
Andrew and his team advance our key projects these past 11 months, displaying
the leadership skills, and the technical and financial expertise to drive Aura
through this exciting phase of our development.

Personally, I've been delighted with what we've achieved in 2024 and am very
pleased to have Andrew on board to continue taking us forward towards
development and into production.

The capacity of the team to develop Tiris has been further strengthened with a
number of other key appointments.

These include Mark Somlyay, a talented CFO with extensive experience in West
Africa. Jan Booyse, and his Project EQ team, who will undertake the
pre-development planning and the Owner's Team function for the Tiris
development. And most recently, Moctar Mohamed El Hacene was appointed to the
newly established role of Country Manager, Mauritania.

This is a critical appointment for our Tiris project.

Moctar is a highly qualified Mauritanian national with exceptional experience
in mining and international affairs. He previously served as Mauritania's
Petroleum and Mines Minister from 2007 to 2008, during which time uranium was
first discovered at Tiris. In addition to his role as Country Manager
Mauritania, Moctar has also been appointed as Tiris Resources'
Director-General; that's our 85%-owned Mauritanian subsidiary and holder of
the Tiris uranium project.

Moctar's tenure at Aura began on November 1 after a decade with the United
Nations' serving as Director for the Economic Development and Integration
Division's economic and social commission for Western Asia - during which time
he was based in Lebanon.

His appointment reflects the exciting progress being made at Tiris.

Further appointments are underway to ensure the team has the capacity to
successfully bring Tiris into production in late 2026 to capitalise on the new
wave of clean energy demand worldwide.

Our company is now uniquely positioned with a near-term, low-cost, high-margin
uranium development at Tiris.

Not forgetting our Tier One polymetallic resource at the Häggån Project in
Europe's leading mining jurisdiction in Sweden.

And in a market that is increasingly hungry for cleaner energy solutions - the
future is bright for Aura.

This year we made substantial progress at both Tiris and Häggån, and we are
focused on moving Tiris into construction and production by the end of 2026.

Tiris Uranium Project

 

As you would be aware, the Tiris Uranium Project is now fully permitted and
construction ready following the Mauritanian Government's granting of its
final material permit for the construction and operation of the project. The
Front-End Engineering and Design or FEED(1) study for Tiris was completed and
our production target updated in September 2024(2), demonstrating the
outstanding economics of Tiris with:

·    A NPV8% of US$499 million

·    An internal rate of return (or IRR) of 39 per cent

·    A 2¼ year payback period

This year, we also conducted a successful exploration campaign which led to a
55% increase in Tiris' global Mineral Resources: Tiris Mineral Resources are
now 91.3 Mlbs U3O8, from 58.9 Mlbs U3O3.

We remain confident that there is room for significant further growth in
Tiris' resource base. As with the rest of our business, exploration efforts in
Mauritania are very cost effective. The increased Mineral Resources for Tiris
driven by our exploration campaign was delivered at a discovery cost of only
US$0.14 per pound U3O8.

Importantly, we have also been investigating options to expand the annual
production base from 2Mlbspa U3O8 to 3Mlbspa U3O8 or greater after year three
of operations with any expansion capital potentially funded from cashflow, the
results of which will be released in the near future but should demonstrate
the significant value achievable at Tiris through additional capital
investment and future exploration success.

Furthermore, we were very happy with the result of our negotiations and
discussions with our offtake partners at Curzon Uranium Ltd (Curzon).

As we announced a few months ago, Curzon agreed to restructure(4) the
historical uranium offtake agreement, materially increasing the price
receivable for planned uranium production and releasing significant value for
Tiris.

Essentially, our average fixed contract price pursuant to the Curzon offtake
arrangements has increased 70% to US$74.75/lb U3O8 up from US$44.09 per pound
- subject to FID by early 2025, which we're confident of achieving.

Total contracted volumes reduce from 2.6Mlbs to 2.1Mlbs over the same
seven-year term, delivering US$41 million of additional potential revenue to
Tiris at a uranium price of US$80 per pound.

As part of the restructure Curzon took a US$3.5 million placement into Aura
and was also paid a US$3.5 million fee paid in Aura shares and we welcome
Curzon as a partner in the Project and significant shareholder in Aura.

Tiris Funding

 

In June, Aura appointed Orimco to arrange debt funding for Tiris. Orimco has
vast experience supporting projects throughout Africa and at the same time,
Macquarie Capital was appointed in Australia to identify and engage with
strategic investors for a potential equity investment in Tiris and/or Aura

·    While this process is ongoing, I can offer a high-level update: We
have received confidential, non-binding proposals from a number of investors
and debt providers and other parties continue to contact us expressing
willingness to co-invest

·    Both funding processes are on-going, with advisors continuing to
progress conversations with a number of parties proposed to be engaged in both
the debt and strategic investment opportunities

·    At this time, discussions in respect of the proposals have not
sufficiently progressed to be announced to the market and there is no binding
agreement in place with respect to any funding arrangement. Aura confirms that
no assurance can be given that the ongoing confidential discussions will
result in any binding agreement between the parties, and Aura will continue to
maintain its policy of keeping the market fully informed with its continuous
disclosure obligations

·   Independent engineers have commenced due diligence on all aspects of the
project on behalf of the lenders and investors

·    We are working with potential funding parties and hope to be in a
position to make a Final Investment Decision ('FID') on Tiris in Q1 2025
following which there is an 18-month final design and construction program
with production aimed at commencing in late 2026

We are pleased with the progress to date and the level of interest we've
received from a strong mix of potential funding partners.

(1) ASX and AIM Release: 28 Feb 2024 - FEED study confirms excellent economics
for the Tiris Uranium Project

(2) ASX and AIM Release: 11 Sept 2024 - Updated Production Target improves
economics at Tiris Uranium Project

(3) ASX and AIM Release: 12 June 2024 - Aura increases Tiris Mineral Resources
by 55% to 91.3 Mlbs

(4) ASX and AIM Release: 16 April 2024 - Offtake restructure delivers
significant value Curzon Restructure and Placement

 

Häggån Project

 

I'm pleased to report that this morning, I am in Stockholm where we have
meetings scheduled with key ministerial and governmental officials as we
liaise with the Swedish Government, working through the legislative policy
changes that are required to implement its commitment to the further
development of nuclear power including its policy to roll back the ban on
uranium mining.

While here in Sweden I'd like to remind you of Ebba Buisch, Sweden's Deputy
Prime Minister quote "That the most beautiful word I know is baseload. Let's
take politics out of energy policy and put physics back in". In highlighting
the importance of baseload, the Deputy Prime Minister observed "There's a
difference between terawatts and terawatt hours and there's a lot of
politicians and inanciers who need to learn." The Deputy Prime Minister also
observed "By the way, for the inanciers who are learning and looking for
nuclear projects to fund...Sweden is open for business"(5)

While this potential policy change is still in the works, we continue to
advance the project across multiple fronts. Sweden, like the rest of Europe,
sees nuclear energy as critical to providing energy security with zero carbon
emissions.

At our Häggån Project in Sweden, we continue to make good progress. Haggan
represents a substantial tier one polymetallic resource in Häggån comprised
of vast resources of future-facing metals such as vanadium, potassium, nickel,
zinc, molybdenum, and uranium.

In particular, during this past year we have continued our engagement with
local communities.

As we announced in September 2023, our Haggan scoping study(6) was based on
less than 3% of Häggån's two billion tonnes of Mineral Resources and it
excluded uranium - which underlines why we are so excited about Häggån's
long-term potential.

In August this year, we lodged an Exploitation Permit Application for
Häggån, and we expect our applications to be considered favourably due to
the amount of work undertaken to date. Once granted we can also renew the
larger Häggån exploration permit. Our exploitation permit application for
Häggån K number 1, lodged with the Swedish Mining Inspectorate, includes a
preliminary assessment of the project that spells out its economics and its
environmental and community impact.

Once granted, the permit will provide Aura with a 25-year tenure- and paves
the way for us to carry out further environmental and social impact studies,
with the ultimate goal of developing a profitable mine that operates
sustainably, responsibly and in full compliance with Swedish regulations.

The progress we're making at Häggån and the very real near-term development
of Tiris are perfectly positioned to capitalise on global demand for uranium,
which continues to grow.

(5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuMYOVP_zGE
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuMYOVP_zGE)

Global Demand

 

As we highlighted in our recently released annual report, there are around 155
nuclear reactors around the world that are either under construction right
now, or that are planned to be constructed in the very near future(7).

During the past year, some key government decisions were announced in support
of the production of nuclear energy, uranium mining and uranium conversion.

These include the developments in Sweden that I mentioned earlier, as well as
the United Kingdom's plans to quadruple its nuclear energy capacity by 2050,
and the US, Canada, Japan and France collectively investing in new uranium
enrichment and conversion capacity.

And just a couple of weeks ago, the outgoing Biden administration in the US
unveiled the US Government's plans to triple nuclear power amid increasing
demand. This follows announcements from major companies such as Microsoft
which plans to leverage nuclear power to support the rapid growth in
artificial intelligence.

Meanwhile, China's development of its nuclear energy capacity continues at
pace despite economic challenges that the country is facing.

These developments have underpinned uranium prices, which have stabilised at
around US$80 per pound.

We are not alone in our optimism and excitement about the long-term direction
of uranium markets.

The World Nuclear Association's Nuclear Fuel Report 2023(8) projects a 28%
increase in demand for uranium by 2030 and a further 51% increase in demand
between 2031 and 2040.

Our Future

 

The team at Aura are excited at the prospects of our business and we hope you,
our shareholders, are equally excited.

We want to thank our shareholders for their ongoing support - including those
shareholders that joined us on this journey as part of our A$16 million
placement and oversubscribed share purchase plan during the year.

This funding is helping us accelerate Tiris towards FID, whilst unlocking
future expansion opportunities in both the resource potential and project
scale.

There has been plenty of good news in 2024 but 2025 will be a truly defining
year for Aura as we ready ourselves for a final investment decision for the
Tiris Project.

With compelling economics, a terrific team in place, and a stable and
supportive Government and local community in Mauritania, Tiris is poised to be
a near-term, low-cost, high-margin producer coming into a glowing uranium
market driven by growing global energy demand and the global push to meet Net
Zero targets to mitigate climate change.

Our focus for the coming months will be to finalise Tiris' funding
requirements as we approach FID.

In Sweden, we are building and nurturing relationships with key stakeholders
as we move through the required approval processes to continue the development
of the Häggån Project.

At the same time, we are we are closely watching and waiting as the Swedish
Government moves through its legislative processes to rescind the country's
ban on uranium mining.

I would like to thank Andrew and his executive team, and our people in
Australia, Mauritania and Sweden for their continued professionalism and
commitment to improving and delivering our projects.

To conclude, on behalf of my fellow Board members at Aura, thank you again for
your support of Aura in 2024 and we look forward to providing further exciting
updates in the new year and beyond, as we move from planning and developing,
to building of the world's next major uranium projects.

Thank you

Phillip Mitchell, Chair Aura Energy Ltd

(6) ASX and AIM Release: 5 Sept 2023 - Scoping Study Confirms Scale and
Optionality of Häggån

(7) Online article "Plans for new reactors worldwide" Nov 2024 - World Nuclear
Association (https://world-nuclear.org/information-
library/current-and-future-generation/plans-for-new-reactors-worldwide)

(8) See World Nuclear Association website for the Fuel Report 2023 at
www.world- (http://www.world-nuclear.org/) nuclear.org
(http://www.world-nuclear.org/)

 

ENDS

Aura Energy Ltd has approved this announcement.

This Announcement contains inside information for the purposes of the UK
version of the market abuse regulation (EU No. 596/2014) as it forms part of
United Kingdom domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act
2018 ('UK MAR').

For further information, please contact:

 Andrew Grove                                   Paul Ryan                                            SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP

 Managing Director and CEO                      Sodali & Co                                          Nominated Advisor and Broker

 Aura Energy Limited                            Investor & Media Relations                           David Hignell

 agrove@auraee.com (mailto:Agrove@auraee.com)   paul.ryan@sodali.com (mailto:paul.ryan@sodali.com)   Adam Cowl

 +61 414 011 383                                +61 409 296 511                                      Devik Mehta

                                                                                                     Grant Barker

                                                                                                     +44 203 470 0470

 

About Aura Energy (ASX: AEE, AIM: AURA) 

Aura Energy is an Australian-based mineral company with major uranium and
polymetallic projects in Africa and Europe.

The Company is focused on developing a uranium mine at the Tiris Uranium
Project, a major greenfield uranium discovery in Mauritania. 2024 FEED
Study 1  and Updated Production Target 2  demonstrated Tiris to be a near-term
low-cost 2Mlbs U(3)O(8) pa future uranium mine with a 25-year mine life with
excellent economics and optionality to expand to accommodate future resource
growth.

Aura plans to transition from a uranium explorer to a uranium producer to
capitalise on the rapidly growing demand for nuclear power as the world shifts
towards a decarbonised energy sector.

Beyond the Tiris Project, Aura owns 100% of the Häggån Project in Sweden.
Häggån contains a global-scale 2.5Bt vanadium, sulphate of potash ("SOP") 3 
and uranium 4  resource. Utilising only 3% of the resource, a 2023 Scoping
Study 5  outlined a 17-year mine life based on mining 3.5Mtpa.

 

 

 1  ASX and AIM Release: 28 Feb 2024 - FEED study confirms excellent economics
for the Tiris Uranium Project

 2  ASX and AIM Release: 11 Sept 2024 - Updated Production Target improves
economics at Tiris Uranium Project

 3  ASX and AIM Release: 10 Oct 2019 - Häggån Battery Metal Project Resource
Upgrade Estimate

 4  ASX and AIM Release: 22 Aug 2012 - Outstanding Häggån Uranium Resource
expands to 800 million pounds

 5  ASX and AIM Release: 5 Sept 2023 - Scoping Study Confirms Scale and
Optionality of Häggån

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