Vancouver – Looking to live up to its name, Mega Uranium (MGA-V, MGAFF-O) has placed Aussie-listed company Redport (RPT-A) in its takeover sights along its path of growth by acquisitions.
Mega Uranium has grabbed 15.6% of the securities of Redport for a cash payment of $10.5 million and has entered into an agreement to acquire the remaining shares in a conditional off-market takeover offer for 9.36 million Mega shares.
Redport’s principal asset is the Lake Maitland uranium project in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia. The extensively drilled deposit hosts a JORC-compliant inferred resource of 32.7 million tonnes grading 0.033% U3O8 (using a 0.01% U3O8 cutoff grade) for 23.7 million contained lbs. of U3O8. If a 0.05% U3O8 cutoff grade is used, the inferred resource shows a higher-grade core of 5.5 million tonnes at 0.086% U3O8 or 10.5 million contained lbs. of U3O8.
Since its discovery by Asarco Australia in 1972, the project has been tested by 1,605 drill holes by Mt. Isa Mines, now Xstrata (XSRAF-O, XTA-L), and Esso Exploration in the 1980s and 1990s, and by Redport in late-2005. Drilling averaged 7.8-metres depth and was conducted on 100-metre intervals with 200-metre spaced lines.
Lake Maitland is described as a shallow, calcrete uranium deposit hosted in playa lake evaporitic sediments. It occurs in a single 1-to-3 metre thick mineralized layer within 2-to-6 metres from surface. With a continuous, higher-grade core area, Redport believes a planned mining operation could exploit this zone in the initial years of an operation and would likely result in enhanced economics.
Redport holds four other uranium projects (Mundong Well, Angelo River, Kintyre Rocks and Kintyre East) in Western Australia plus 18% interest in the Edwards Creek uranium project in South Australia’s Olympic Dam region. The company also has an A$0.055 per pound U3O8 royalty from production at Paladin Resources’ (PDN-T, PALAF-O, PDN-A) Langer Heinrich uranium deposit in Namibia that is scheduled to commence operations in September-2006.
Earlier this year, Mega Uranium completed its acquisition of the private Australian company Future Metals and Energy, which held an adjacent uranium deposit (historic resource of 6.4 million lbs of contained U3O8) to its Georgetown project in Northern Queensland. Mega acquired the company for one million shares.
Mega is also finalizing its acquisition of Aussie-listed Hindmarsh Resources (HMR-A) that holds uranium tenements in South Australia.
In addition to its uranium resources in Australia, Mega holds exploration projects in Argentina, Mongolia, Bolivia and Canada. With the stock notching up 4% to close at $7.18 per share on the news, the company posts a $379-million market capitalization based on its 52.8 million shares outstanding.
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