Unhedged SXR Uranium One Ends Year With $327.5M in Reserve
By Charlotte Mathews
30 Mar 2007 at 10:31 AM
JOHANNESBURG (Business Day) –- Gold and uranium company SXR Uranium One [TSX:SXR] held $327.5 million in cash at the end of December after a year of successful fundraising to finance exploration and development of its properties in South Africa, Australia and the U.S., according to its year-end results released yesterday.
“We remain unhedged, and well positioned to take advantage of the strong uranium price and the expected future buoyancy of the market,” SXR Uranium One president and CEO Neal Froneman said yesterday.
The group made a headline loss of US38.33 cents a share for the year, down from last year’s US58.67 cents a share loss.
The company increased revenue from gold sales to $3.3 million from $2.7 million on a firmer gold price. It also earned more interest on funds raised during the year and from the disposal of investments, which was offset by administrative and exploration spending.
SXR Uranium One is engaged in building three mines: the Dominion uranium mine near Klerksdorp, the Honeymoon uranium mine in Australia and, through its subsidiary Aflease Gold, the Modder East gold mine on the East Rand.
The group has begun processing ore from Dominion and expects production at Honeymoon to begin within a year.
It said it was actively pursuing uranium opportunities in the U.S. and central Asia.
SXR Uranium One recently announced an offer to buy all the outstanding shares of UrAsia Energy [TSXv:UUU], a Canadian-based uranium company with assets in Kazakhstan, in the ratio of 0.45 Uranium One shares for each UrAsia share held.
The combined company would have a market capitalisation of more than $5 billion and be the world’s second-biggest uranium producer after Cameco Corporation [NYSE:CCJ; TSX:CCO].
By 2012, the combined company could produce about 19 million pounds of uranium a year, compared with Cameco’s production of 20.9 million pounds last year.
UrAsia’s shareholders are due to vote on the deal in mid-May.
SXR Uranium One’s shares shed 33 cents to C$16.15 on the TSX yesterday.
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