RE: Uranium producer-news
18:45 EST Monday, November 07, 2005
VANCOUVER, Nov. 7 /CNW/ - UrAsia Energy Ltd. (the "Company" or "UrAsia Energy") is pleased to announce that it has completed its business combination with UrAsia Energy (B.V.I.) Ltd. ("UrAsia BVI") as announced on September 20, 2005, together with a 2:1 consolidation of its common shares, and a name change from Signature Resources Ltd. to UrAsia Energy Ltd. Pursuant to the business combination, the Company acquired all of the issued and outstanding securities of UrAsia BVI, in consideration for the issuance of 413,581,250 post-consolidation shares of the Company to the security holders of UrAsia BVI. The Company now has a total of 419,516,871 common shares issued and outstanding. The Company's shares will begin trading on the TSX Venture Exchange on November 8, 2005 under the symbol UUU.
In conjunction with the closing of the business combination, UrAsia BVI completed a brokered financing through a syndicate led by Canaccord International Ltd. and including BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. and GMP Securities Limited, of 280,000,000 subscription receipts at a price of CDN$1.80 per subscription receipt for gross proceeds of CDN$504 million. Each subscription receipt was exercised into one common share of the Company on closing of the business combination without trading restrictions and are included in the above issued capital numbers. The net proceeds from the private placements (including the August 2005 CDN$58.5 million which was released from escrow at closing) have been used to fund the cash portion of the purchase price of the uranium projects in Kazakhstan described in the Company's Filing Statement dated October 19, 2005 and Technical Reports by Roscoe Postle Associates Inc. ("RPA Technical Reports"), both available on www.sedar.com and for general corporate purposes.
Commenting on the Company's strategy, Phillip Shirvington, CEO, said "Global energy demand is soaring and, along with that, nuclear power generation. Our uranium production will go some of the way in meeting the producer supply shortfall in the uranium industry and thereby making an important contribution to meeting global energy demand. The Akdala in-situ leach ("ISL") mine has been in operation since 2003 and our first priority is to expand production through a process improvement plan, which will be funded from the project's operating cash flow. UrAsia has approximately CDN$75 million of cash and plans to work closely with our local partner, Kazatomprom, to aggressively bring our two advanced stage projects, South Inkai and Kharassan, into production. For all three projects, we have created strategic partnerships with Kazatomprom, the Kazakh State owned company responsible for the mining, import and export of uranium, giving us invaluable local expertise."
As part of the business combination, UrAsia BVI acquired a 70% interest in the Betpak Dala Joint Venture in consideration for US$350 million and future bonus payments based on newly discovered uranium reserves. As security for its obligations to make future payments in respect of the acquisition of the interest in Betpak Dala, UrAsia BVI has pledged its participatory interest in Betpak Dala (including the shares of a subsidiary) and has pledged its share of uranium products produced by Betpak Dala from the Akdala and South Inkai projects. The remaining 30% interest in the Betpak Dala Joint Venture is held by Kazatomprom. The Betpak Dala Joint Venture has a 100% interest in the Akdala ISL uranium mine and a 100% interest in the South Inkai ISL uranium development project, both located in south central Kazakhstan. Sourced from the RPA Technical Reports and detailed in the tables below, Akdala has proven reserves of 6.4 million lbs U3O8 and probable reserves of 21.4 million lbs U3O8 contained within indicated resources of 30.6 million lbs U3O8 and inferred resources of 15.6 million lbs U3O8. South Inkai has inferred resources of 36.6 million lbs U3O8.
UrAsia BVI also acquired a 30% interest in the Kharassan uranium project located in south central Kazakhstan through the purchase of a 30% interest in the Kyzylkum JV in consideration for US$75 million of which US$37.5 million was paid in cash and US$37.5 million was paid by the issuance of 24,181,500 ordinary shares of UrAsia BVI. The other 70% interest in the project is held by Kazatomprom as to 30% and JSC Ulbinsky Metallurgichesky Zavod as to 40%. A bonus payment of US$24 million is due upon commencement of commercial production, payable in cash or by the issuance of 15,476,000 shares of UrAsia Energy at the seller's option. An additional bonus payment of 3.75% of the U3O8 spot price is payable on reserves in excess of 55,000 tonnes of uranium (143 million lbs of U3O8). Sourced from the RPA Technical Reports, Kharassan has indicated resources of 13.8 million lbs U3O8 and inferred resources of 75.4 million lbs U3O8.
UrAsia Energy's attributable reserves and resources from its purchased interests in the three projects, Akdala, South Inkai and Kharassan, total 4.5 million lbs U3O8 of proven reserves and 15.0 million lbs U3O8 of probable reserves contained within 25.5 million lbs U3O8 of indicated resources and 59.1 million lbs U3O8 of inferred resources, as detailed in the tables below. UrAsia intends to extend its 43-101 compliant resource base by drilling out Russian P1 resources on its joint venture properties.
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Table A - 100% Basis
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Property Basis Reserves
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Proven Probable
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Tonnage Grade Contained Tonnage Grade Contained
k tonnes % U Million k tonnes % U Million
lbs U3O8 lbs U3O8
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Akdala 100% 4,312 0.057% 6.4 14,460 0.057% 21.4
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Resources
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Indicated Inferred
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Tonnage Grade Contained Tonnage Grade Contained
k tonnes % U Million k tonnes % U Million
lbs U3O8 lbs U3O8
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Akdala 100% 20,624 0.057% 30.6 9,683 0.062% 15.6
South Inkai 100% - - - 32,709 0.043% 36.6
Kharassan
(North) 100% 2,635 0.201% 13.8 30,532 0.095% 75.4
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Total
Resources 23,259 0.073% 44.3 72,924 0.067% 127.6
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Table B - Attributable to UrAsia Energy
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Property Basis Reserves
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Proven Probable
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Tonnage Grade Contained Tonnage Grade Contained
k tonnes % U Million k tonnes % U Million
lbs U3O8 lbs U3O8
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Akdala 70% 3,018 0.057% 4.4 10,122 0.057% 15.0
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Resources
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Indicated Inferred
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Tonnage Grade Contained Tonnage Grade Contained
k tonnes % U Million k tonnes % U Million
lbs U3O8 lbs U3O8
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Akdala 70% 14,437 0.057% 21.4 6,778 0.062% 10.9
South Inkai 70% - - - 22,896 0.043% 25.6
Kharassan
(North) 30% 791 0.201% 4.1 9,160 0.095% 22.6
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Total
Resources 15,227 0.064% 25.5 38,834 0.059% 59.1
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Note: Conversion factor from tonnes U to million lbs U3O8 of
2.2046 / 0.848 equals 2600
Messrs. Keep, Proust, Liland and Johal have resigned as directors of the Company, and the board of directors of the Company now consists of Ian Telfer, Non Executive Chairman, Phillip Shirvington, Frank Giustra, Bob Cross, Douglas Holtby and Dr. Massimo Carello. The officers are Phillip Shirvington, President and Chief Executive Officer, Gordon Keep, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary and Dr. Sally Eyre, Vice President, Corporate Affairs. Mr. Wallace Mays will be Operations Manager. The Company has also granted 7,250,000 options to directors, employees and consultants at a price of CDN$1.80 per share for a period of ten years.
UrAsia Energy is a Canadian-based uranium mining and development company that intends to be the premier stock for investors wanting exposure to low-cost uranium production and growth. The Company plans to create shareholder value by focusing on development and operation of low-cost, in-situ leach projects that are capable of world-class performance. The Company has acquired indirect interests in three uranium projects in Kazakhstan, including the Akdala operating mine and the South Inkai and Kharassan advanced-stage development projects. Each project is supported by a very large resource base, with considerable exploration upside, providing long mine life potential. The Company also has an extensive uranium exploration portfolio in Kyrgyzstan. Annual production is expected to be approximately 1.4 million lbs U3O8 at a cash cost of less than US$10 per lb in 2006, potentially growing to over 10 million lbs U3O8 by 2015 from existing projects.
The Company announces it has engaged Vanguard Shareholder Solutions Inc ("Vanguard"), an independent company, to provide public relations services to the Company. Vanguard provides communication and investor relations services to public companies listed in Canada and is headed by Mr. Paul Lathigee. The Vanguard agreement includes consulting fees of CDN$10,000 per month plus expenses. The term of the agreement is 12 months and it is subject to regulatory approval. UrAsia Energy has granted Vanguard 350,000 stock options at CDN$1.80 for a period of two years, subject to a 12 month vesting schedule.
The Company has launched its website at www.urasiaenergy.com and for more information you can contact Investor Relations at 1-866-798-0824 or (604) 608-0824 or visit www.sedar.com.
On behalf of UrAsia Energy Ltd.
"Phillip Shirvington"