Westwater Resources Prevails in Key Decision in the International Arbitration Against Turkey
April 30 2020 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
ICSID Tribunal Declines to Bifurcate
Proceeding
Westwater Resources, Inc. (Nasdaq: WWR), an energy materials
development company, announced that the tribunal appointed by the
International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)
has issued a procedural order that denies a request made by the
Republic of Turkey to bifurcate the arbitration proceeding. As a
result, a hearing on the merits is now scheduled for September
2021.
In December 2018, Westwater invoked the provisions of the
bilateral investment treaty between Turkey and the United States
and filed for international arbitration before ICSID as a result of
the decision by the Turkish government to revoke seven uranium
licenses held by Adur Madencilik Ltd. (“Adur”), a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Westwater, located in Turkey. In March 2020, Turkey
requested that the arbitral tribunal bifurcate the arbitration and
decide two jurisdictional issues first, a procedural move that
would have delayed the arbitration and potentially avoided a
hearing to quantify damages. In its request, Turkey alleged that
Westwater’s purchase of Adur in 2015 did not qualify as an
investment in Turkey protected by the treaty, and also alleged that
Westwater filed its arbitration demand too early.
In Procedural Order #2 issued on April 28, 2020, the arbitral
tribunal denied Turkey’s bifurcation request and commented that
Turkey’s jurisdictional objections that Westwater’s acquisition of
Adur did not qualify as a proper investment in Turkey, was
“standard fare” in investor state arbitration. With regard to that
objection, the arbitral tribunal found Turkey’s position “would, if
accepted, create great complexity” by “creating a chequerboard of
rights” that did not fit with “public international law concepts of
State responsibility.” On the issue of the timing of the
commencement of the arbitration, the arbitral panel observed that
“providing for a further period of negotiation would be, and would
have been futile.” As a result of this decision, the tribunal will
make a final decision on both objections in the course of the
arbitration, rather than delaying proceedings to consider them
separately.
Christopher M. Jones, President and Chief Executive Officer,
commented, “This step forward in our case for compensation from
Turkey is important to Westwater and our investors. We appreciate
the time and effort that has gone into these proceedings by the
arbitral panel and our legal team, and look forward to timely
resolution of our dispute with the Republic of Turkey.”
As a result of the tribunal’s decision, a hearing on substantive
issues and damages is now scheduled for September 2021. In
addition, Turkey is required to submit a memorial setting forth its
positions on July 20, 2020. Westwater’s memorial was filed on
January 27, 2020.
About Westwater Resources
Westwater Resources (NASDAQ: WWR) is focused on developing
energy-related materials. The Company’s battery-materials projects
include the Coosa Graphite Project — the most advanced natural
flake graphite project in the contiguous United States — and the
associated Coosa Graphite Mine located across 41,900 acres (~17,000
hectares) in east-central Alabama. In addition, the Company
maintains lithium mineral properties in prospective lithium brine
basins in Nevada and Utah. Westwater’s uranium projects are located
in Texas and New Mexico. In Texas, the Company has two licensed and
currently idled uranium processing facilities and approximately
11,000 acres (~4,400 hectares) of prospective in-situ recovery
uranium projects. In New Mexico, the Company controls mineral
rights encompassing approximately 188,700 acres (~76,000 hectares)
in the prolific Grants Mineral Belt, which is one of the largest
concentrations of sandstone-hosted uranium deposits in the world.
Incorporated in 1977 as Uranium Resources, Inc., Westwater also
owns an extensive uranium information database of historic drill
hole logs, assay certificates, maps, and technical reports for the
western United States. For more information, visit
www.westwaterresources.net.
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 WWR expects or anticipates will occur in the
future, including but not limited to statements relating to
developments in arbitration before the ICSID and ultimate outcome
thereof 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 successfully integrate Alabama Graphite Corporation’s
business into its own, and the risk that additional analysis of the
Coosa Graphite Project may result in revisions to the findings of
WWR’s initial optimization study; (b) the Company’s ability to
raise additional capital in the future; (c) spot price and
long-term contract price of graphite, lithium, vanadium and
uranium; (d) risks associated with our operations and the
operations of our partners such as Dorfner Anzaplan, including the
impact of COVID-19; (e) operating conditions at the Company’s
projects; (f) government and tribal regulation of the graphite
industry, the lithium industry, the vanadium industry, the uranium
industry, and the power industry, and government support for
domestic uranium production and nuclear power; (g) world-wide
graphite, lithium, vanadium and uranium supply and demand,
including the supply and demand for lithium-based batteries; (h)
maintaining sufficient financial assurance in the form of
sufficiently collateralized surety instruments; (i) unanticipated
geological, processing, regulatory and legal or other problems the
Company may encounter in the jurisdictions where the Company
operates or intends to operate, including in Alabama, Texas, New
Mexico, Utah, and Nevada; (j) the ability of the Company to enter
into and successfully close acquisitions or other material
transactions; (k) the results of the Company’s lithium brine
exploration activities at the Columbus Basin and Sal Rica projects,
and the possibility that future exploration results may be
materially less promising than initial exploration result; (i) any
graphite, lithium, vanadium or uranium discoveries not being in
high-enough concentration to make it economic to extract the
metals; (m) currently pending or new litigation or arbitration; and
(n) 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.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200430005176/en/
Westwater Resources Contact: Christopher M. Jones, President
& CEO Phone: 303.531.0480 Jeff Vigil, VP Finance & CFO
Phone: 303.531.0481 Email: Info@WestwaterResources.net
Investor Relations Contact: Porter, LeVay & Rose Michael
Porter Matthew Abenante Phone: 212.564.4700 Email:
Westwater@plrinvest.com
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