Rio Tinto Acquires Hathor! NR Nov 30/11Rio Tinto has gained permission to acquire Hathor Exploration as Cameco declined to bid further, according to today's News Release.
It's interesting to note from the NR that:
... "Rio Tinto might still need to find a Canadian company in order to share at least 51 percent of a joint venture production from the deposit, due to existence of the Non-Resident Ownership Policy, inhibiting an exclusive foreign mining interest from producing uranium from the region."
Despite any edginess in recent bidding, Cameco is now eligible to gain a 51% JV as they are a Canadian company headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Now wouldn't that be an interesting spin?
Even if that scenario did not happen,
One poster on this board speculated that if Rio wins the bidding war for Hathor it looks like Production JVs is where their attention will be focused, rather than Exploration JVs like Purepoint.
With an estimated 567M needed to develop Hathor's Roughrider asset that seems to be true BUT a secure multinational miner like Rio partnered with a contender-level JV partner equals 'deep pockets' [hopefully] ! ! !
Uranium is on the upswing; demand is outpacing supply --so there's room to multi-task!
From the Press Release, regarding Hathor's Roughrider asset:
"Mine production costs and potential issues