Uranium Energy Expands Athabasca Basin Holdings Through Acquisition of Rio Tinto’s Exploration Projects

Uranium Energy Corp (NYSE American: UEC) has broadened its land portfolio in the Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan with the acquisition of a set of exploration-stage projects previously held by Rio Tinto Exploration Canada.

Included in this acquisition are a 60% equity stake in the Henday Lake joint venture, full ownership of the Milliken project, and a 50% equity stake in the Carswell joint venture project. The total consideration for this acquisition, which was funded using UEC's existing cash reserves, amounted to C$1.5 million.

This strategic move has added approximately 18,000 hectares of promising territory in the Athabasca Basin to UEC's existing portfolio, which already spans over 440,000 hectares.

This acquisition follows UEC's purchase of the Roughrider project from Rio Tinto in October 2022, a project located just 13 kilometers west of the McClean Lake uranium mill. The Roughrider project boasts a historic resource of 58 million pounds of uranium oxide (U3O8) at an average grade of 4.73% U3O8 across all categories.

Furthermore, UEC's acquisition of UEX and its 29 uranium projects, covering key areas on both the producing eastern side and developing western side of the prolific Athabasca Basin, further solidified the company's presence in the region.

Amir Adnani, CEO of UEC, emphasized the significance of this acquisition in the context of the company's strategy to create a premier North American uranium portfolio. This portfolio aims to encompass near-term US production, Canadian development-stage projects (including joint ventures), and a pipeline of exploration projects with substantial growth potential.

Over the past year, UEC's acquisitions have significantly bolstered its attributed current resources, adding 109.9 million pounds of indicated resources and 71.0 million pounds of inferred resources. These resources are associated with projects such as Roughrider, Christie Lake, Horseshoe-Raven, Shea Creek, and Millennium.

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