The acquisition will include Base Resources' fully-owned advanced Toliara heavy mineral sands project located in Madagascar
Base Resources to be acquired by Energy Fuels in $241m deal. (Credit: Jerzy Górecki from Pixabay)
Energy Fuels, a US-based uranium, rare earth elements (REEs), and vanadium producer, has signed a definitive scheme implementation deed (SID) with Base Resources to acquire the latter in a deal worth about A$375m ($241.43m).
Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Base Resources is an African focused, mineral sands producer and developer.
Under the terms of the SID, each Base Resources shareholder will receive 0.026 Energy Fuels common shares and A$0.065 ($0.042) in cash as consideration. This represents an implied price of A$0.3 ($0.19) per base share.
Following implementation of the scheme, Energy Fuels and Base Resources shareholders will own nearly 83.6% and 16.4%, respectively of the enlarged company.
The acquisition will include Base Resources’ fully-owned advanced Toliara heavy mineral sands project in Madagascar.
Toliara comprises a long-life, high-value and low cost monazite stream, which is produced as a byproduct of primary titanium and zirconium production.
According to Energy Fuels, Toliara monazite production will be processed at its wholly owned White Mesa Mill into separated REE oxides, at low capital and operating cost.
Base Resources managing director Tim Carstens said: “This transaction reflects the exceptional quality of the Toliara project and the efforts of the Base Resources team over several years to advance the project towards construction readiness.”
As part of the deal, Energy Fuels will access Base Resources’ leadership and heavy mineral sands operations team.
The Base Resources team will continue to oversee the development and operation of Toliara as well as improve Energy Fuels’ heavy mineral sands teams in Australia and Brazil.
Energy Fuels president and CEO Mark Chalmers said: “The acquisition of Base Resources and the Toliara project represents a monumental leap forward for the Company, as we continue to execute on a truly revolutionary REE, uranium and critical mineral combined strategy.
“For the past four-plus years, Energy Fuels has innovated a new way to produce critical minerals, that we believe is more cost competitive than traditional approaches, by leveraging our uranium processing expertise and infrastructure to develop a secure, US-centric REE oxide supply chain.”