Toro to buy uranium project
The company that hopes to develop Western Australia's first uranium mine has bought a significant uranium project nearby, saying it offers expansion opportunities.
Toro Energy (TOE), which aims to begin production at its Wiluna project in central WA in 2016, announced it had agreed to buy the Lake Maitland uranium project from Canada's Mega Uranium for 415 million Toro shares.
Based on the company's closing share price on Friday of 8.9 cents, the value of the transaction is almost $37 million and gives Mega a 28% stake in Toro, behind OZ Minerals (OZL), which owns 28.5% and intends to vote in favour of the agreement.
Toro said the deal boosted its resource base in the Wiluna region by 42%, potentially enough for a project of at least 20 years.
Lake Maitland, 90km southeast of Wiluna, contains higher grade material that is expected to improve the overall blended head grade from the Wiluna deposits.
Toro still needs to secure project financing for the Wiluna project and hopes to complete a definitive feasibility study next year.