Uranium Resources, Inc. (URI) (Nasdaq:URRE)
(ASX:URI)
, announced today that its wholly-owned
subsidiary, Lithium Holdings Nevada LLC, entered into an Option
Agreement on March 24, 2017 to purchase a block of unpatented
placer mining claims covering an area of approximately 3,040 acres
within the Columbus Salt Marsh area of Esmeralda County,
Nevada. The claims adjoin a portion of the Company’s current
property holdings at its Columbus Basin Project, expanding the
project area within the basin to over 14,200 acres.
As consideration for the grant of the option,
URI made a one-time cash payment of $75,000 and will pay to the
Bureau of Land Management the annual mining claim maintenance fees
associated with the claims by August 15, 2017, estimated at
$23,560. During the one-year Option Period, URI will have the right
to conduct exploration activities on the claims. Under the
provisions of the Option Agreement, the Company may acquire, on or
before March 24, 2018, an undivided 100% interest in the mineral
property claims for the following consideration:
- 200,000 shares of URI common stock at closing, with a
registration statement to be filed with the SEC within 90 days of
issue;
- A 1% net smelter return royalty (NSR) payable from any
production and sale of lithium derived from the claims.
Chris Jones, URI’s President and CEO said, “We
continue to be excited about the potential of the Columbus Basin
Project. This is a considerable addition to our holdings
there, and expands our coverage in what we believe to be the
deepest and highest potential part of the basin. We will
immediately integrate this ground into our exploration plans for
this year.”
About the Optioned Mining
Claims
The claims subject to this Option Agreement are
situated in the southern portion of the Columbus Salt Marsh, a
closed drainage basin located in western Nevada, approximately 45
miles (72 kilometers) west of the town of Tonopah and about 140
miles (227 kilometers) southeast of the city of Reno. The claim
block is contiguous with URI’s western claim block at the Columbus
Basin Project, and is situated over a portion of the deepest area
of the basin, as identified by geophysical survey data.
Previously completed grid geochemical sampling
by URI personnel across the Columbus Basin detected strong lithium
anomalies in near surface sediments (please refer to our News
Release of February 22, 2017 for details) that appear to extend
onto the claims covered by this Option Agreement. In addition to
the results of URI’s detailed sampling plan on the claims adjacent
to the Optioned property, the property owner collected a brine
sample from a shallow pit on the optioned claims that returned a
value of 240 mg/L (milligrams per liter) of lithium, as reported by
Western Environmental Testing Laboratory (WETLAB), an independent
analytical laboratory based in Reno, Nevada. This result is similar
to assays received by the Company for samples previously collected
from this locality. These geochemical results highlight the
potential of the Columbus Basin project area for the discovery of
lithium-enriched brines.
The claims acquired through the Option Agreement
will be immediately integrated into the URI’s planned exploration
activities for 2017. Those activities include the completion
of the ongoing geophysical data review and reinterpretation (please
refer to our News Release of March 6, 2017), additional
geophysical survey work to complement the existing acquired data,
and finalization of a drilling and hydrogeologic field program to
be executed in the second half of 2017.
About Uranium Resources
URI is focused on expanding its energy metals
strategy, which includes developing its new lithium business while
maintaining optionality on the future rising uranium price.
The Company has developed a dominant land position in two
prospective lithium brine basins in Nevada and Utah for exploration
and potential development of any lithium resources that may be
discovered there. In addition, URI remains focused on
advancing the Temrezli in-situ recovery (ISR) uranium project in
Central Turkey when uranium prices permit economic development of
this project. URI controls extensive exploration properties in
Turkey under eight exploration and operating licenses covering
approximately 39,000 acres (over 16,000 ha) with numerous
exploration targets, including the potential satellite Sefaatli
Project, which is 30 miles (48 km) southwest of the Temrezli
Project. In Texas, the Company has two licensed and currently idled
uranium processing facilities and approximately 11,000 acres (4,400
ha) of prospective ISR uranium projects. In New Mexico, the Company
controls mineral rights encompassing approximately 186,000 acres
(75,300 ha) in the prolific Grants Mineral Belt, which is one of
the largest concentrations of sandstone-hosted uranium deposits in
the world. Incorporated in 1977, URI also owns an extensive
information database of historic drill hole logs, assay
certificates, maps and technical reports for uranium properties
located in the Western United States.
Cautionary Statement
This news release contains forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to
risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are identified by words
such as “expects,” “estimates,” “projects,” “anticipates,”
“believes,” “could,” and other similar words. All statements
addressing events or developments that the Company expects or
anticipates will occur in the future, including but not limited to
statements relating to developments at the Company’s projects,
including future exploration costs and results on the optioned
claims, are forward-looking statements. Because they are
forward-looking, they should be evaluated in light of important
risk factors and uncertainties. These risk factors and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to, (a) the Company’s
ability to raise additional capital in the future; (b) spot price
and long-term contract price of uranium and lithium; (c) risks
associated with our foreign operations, (d) operating conditions at
the Company’s projects; (e) government and tribal regulation of the
uranium industry, the lithium industry, and the power industry; (f)
world-wide uranium and lithium supply and demand, including the
supply and demand for lithium-based batteries; (g) maintaining
sufficient financial assurance in the form of sufficiently
collateralized surety instruments; (h) unanticipated geological,
processing, regulatory and legal or other problems the Company may
encounter in the jurisdictions where the Company operates,
including in Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada and Turkey; (i) the
ability of the Company to enter into and successfully close
acquisitions or other material transactions; (j) the results
of the Company’s lithium brine exploration activities at the
Columbus Basin and Sal Rica Projects, and (k) other factors which
are more fully described in the Company’s Annual Report on Form
10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and other filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these
risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of the Company’s
underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary
materially from those currently anticipated. In addition, undue
reliance should not be placed on the Company’s forward-looking
statements. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any
obligation to update or publicly announce any revisions to any of
the forward-looking statements contained in this news release.
Competent Person’s
Statement
Technical information in this news release is
based on data reviewed by Matthew Hartmann, who is Director –
Technical Services of Uranium Resources, Inc. Mr. Hartmann is
a “Qualified Person” as defined by Canadian National Instrument
43-101, and a “Competent Person” as defined in the 2012 Edition of
the “Australasian Code for Reporting Exploration Results, Mineral
Resources and Ore Reserves” (JORC Code). He is a Licensed
Professional Geologist, and a Registered Member of the Society of
Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (No. 4170350RM). Mr.
Hartmann has appropriate experience that is relevant to the
evaluation of the style and nature of mineral deposits relating to
this document. Mr. Hartmann consents to the inclusion in this
release of the matters based on their information in the form and
context in which they appear.
Uranium Resources Contact:
Christopher M. Jones, President and CEO
303.531.0472
Jeff Vigil, CFO and VP Finance
303.531.0473
info@uraniumresources.com
www.uraniumresources.com
Westwater Resources (NASDAQ:WWR)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Westwater Resources (NASDAQ:WWR)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024