Eagle Energy builds interest despite government snag

The current federal government shutdown in the United States is complicating efforts by mine developer Eagle Energy Metals to proceed with a proposed stock market listing by the end of the year, CEO Mark Mukhija said.

Eagle Energy announced plans in July to go public on Nasdaq by “late 2025” via a merger with Spring Valley Acquisition II, a special purpose acquisition company. An unnamed institutional investor agreed to invest $30 million (C$42 million) in Eagle Energy in connection with the deal to fund drilling and studies at its Aurora uranium project on federal land in eastern Oregon.

The deal, which implies an equity value of about $312 million and carries no minimum cash condition, requires U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission clearance and shareholder approvals. Staff at the SEC has been cut back drastically since the U.S. government officially shut down Oct. 1 as lawmakers failed to reach a funding agreement.

“We filed our S-4 (form) with the SEC already. Unfortunately, the government shutdown is making it difficult for us to get that process continued,” Mukhija said in an interview. “They did give us our first set of comments; we replied, and now we’re waiting for the government to restart and continue that process.”

Oregon uranium

Aurora is described as the largest mineable measured-and-indicated uranium deposit in the U.S. Aurora holds 53.4 million tonnes indicated material grading 278 parts per million (ppm) uranium oxide for 32.75 million lb. of yellowcake, and 9 million tonnes inferred at 252 ppm for 5 million lb. uranium, according to an August SK1300 technical report.

“We’re building an integrated nuclear company – uranium first – with the runway to execute over the next two years,” Mukhija said, citing the transaction proceeds funding its focus on near-term site engineering and permitting.

Based on contained measured and indicated pounds, Aurora edges Uranium Energy Corp.’s (NYSE American: UEC) Anderson project in Arizona at about 32 million lb. indicated, and sits ahead of Energy Fuels’ (TSX: EFR; NYSE American: UUUU) Sheep Mountain in Wyoming at about 28 million lb. M&I.

When ranked by grade, Aurora is lower at 0.0278% (278 ppm converted to a percentage) uranium oxide than peers such as Anderson at about 0.099%, Sheep Mountain at about 0.11%–0.12%, Energy Fuels’ Roca Honda in New Mexico at about 0.48%, and Energy Fuels’ Pinyon Plain in Arizona at 0.58%–0.95% uranium oxide.

Aurora’s development would add a project with scale and a clear study path just as Washington is trying to rebuild the domestic fuel cycle while utilities remain reliant on imports from Kazakhstan, Canada and Russia. U.S. reactors routinely consume about 50–56 million lb. U₃O₈ per year, while domestic mines supply less than 2% of that, according to Mukhija. The balance relies on imports increasingly constrained by geopolitics and enrichment bottlenecks — a structural gap that the CEO says could push prices higher.

The near-surface, flat, tabular orebody has been pierced by roughly 500 drill holes and is suited to a conventional open-pit mine, Mukhija said. Processing is to be permitted on private land in Nevada just across the state line, about 8 km from the pit area, with the haulage method — trucking, conveyor or slurry — to be selected in the next study stage.

Next steps

Eagle Energy’s schedule outlines ongoing metallurgical work and exploration drilling, preliminary economic assessment work next year, a pre-feasibility study by 2027 and a definitive study with early works into 2028. Federal approvals would proceed in parallel in coordination among the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency. The plan also includes baseline environmental and cultural studies and submissions to the Bureau of Land Management and the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries.

Company staffers are also looking at Cordex, a target immediately northeast of Aurora where about 100 historical holes are being digitized for follow-up drilling.

“The Cordex potential is pretty exciting,” Mukhija said. “We’ve already got 50 million lb. in the main deposit, but if we were to find another 15–40 million lb. at Cordex, that changes the whole dynamic.”

Reactor ‘call option’

Beyond mining, Eagle has secured rights to micro-reactor concepts developed at the University of New Mexico. The company has an option on a very small, long-life, modular reactor unit rated up to 3.3 MW-equivalent and a larger design capable of up to 33 MW-equivalent. Both are liquid-sodium-cooled fast reactors using uranium nitride fuel.

Small modular reactor developer NuScale Power (NYSE: SMR) went public in May 2022 by merging with Spring Valley Acquisition – the sponsor behind today’s Spring Valley Acquisition II deal with Eagle – creating the first pure-play, publicly traded small modular reactor company. That history shows the Spring Valley team can deliver on nuclear-sector deal execution, Mukhija said.

The micro-reactor technology is at the conceptual design stage, with utility and provisional patents filed, Mukhija said. Eagle frames the program as a staged, low-cost development alongside the mining plan.

“We’re in the early phase – simulations and component testing would be the first steps,” Mukhija said. “We’re at least five years out from a prototype – commercialization could be around ten years away,” he said, noting that an acceleration of the process is possible.