Cameco Completes Kintyre Acquisition
August 11, 2008 Filed Under: Coal Mining, Mining Stocks, Uranium Mining
Cameco Corporation announced today that it has completed the acquisition of a 70% interest in the Kintyre uranium exploration project in Western Australia for $346.5 million (US).
A joint venture comprised of Cameco (70%) and Mitsubishi Development Pty Ltd (30%) purchased the Kintyre project from Rio Tinto for $495.0 million (US) through a bidding process. Cameco will operate the project and is funding its share of the purchase price through existing credit facilities.
Kintyre is an advanced exploration project located in Western Australia about 1,250 kilometres northeast of Perth. Uranium was first discovered in the area in 1985 and followed up with extensive exploration that identified eight deposits. The project was placed in care and maintenance in 1988 when uranium prices declined below $12 per pound (US). The sale process was initiated by Rio Tinto in 2007.
Cameco has been actively exploring in Australia since 1997 and has exploration licences for more than 795,000 hectares of land in Western Australia (some proximate to the Kintyre deposits), South Australia and the Northern Territory. In February 2008, Cameco secured rights to the Angela-Pamela deposits in the Northern Territory through a joint venture with Paladin Energy Ltd. Cameco has offices in Darwin and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
Mitsubishi Development Pty Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation and is based in Sydney, Australia. The company owns investments in coal and iron ore in Australia, including a 50% share of BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance, the world’s largest metallurgical coal producer.
Cameco, with its head office in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, is the world’s largest uranium producer. The company’s uranium products are used to generate electricity in nuclear energy plants around the world, providing one of the cleanest sources of energy available today. Cameco’s shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges.
