With work at the Lance uranium project in the US continuing at full pace, developer Peninsula Energy on Thursday moved to raise more than A$100-million to carry it through until it starts generating free cashflow by the third quarter of next year.
The ASX-listed miner will raise A$105.9-million at a discounted fixed price of A$0.10 a share, resulting in the issuing of about 1.6-billion new shares, or about 49.9% of existing shares on issue.
“We are still progressing debt discussions, but felt this opportunity delivers a high-level of financial certainty to shareholders in respect to our funding requirements,” said MD and CEO Wayne Heili.
Proceeds from the equity raising, when combined with Peninsula’s cash balance of $49.6-milion, will be used for preproduction and ramp-up capital expenditures, ramp-up operational expenditures, working capital and corporate costs.
The Lance project, in Wyoming, is due to restart operations in December, following a central processing plant capacity expansion construction project.
Lance is one of the biggest independent near-term uranium development projects in the US. Peninsula has ten years of sales contracts in place with major utilities in the US and Europe.
The company recently expanded the mineral resource estimate (MRE) of 58-million pounds of uranium oxide (U3O8) for the project. The updated resource estimate is based on the results of 2023 drilling in the Ross and Kendrick areas and represents a 7.8% improvement from the previous estimate. The MRE within the life-of-mine study areas has increased by 19.6% to 26.2-million pounds of U3O8.