Canadian uranium developer IsoEnergy has completed a transaction with DISA Technologies to form a new, technology-driven US uranium producer, DISA Uranium, in a bid to strengthen America’s domestic nuclear fuel supply chain.
The deal sees IsoEnergy contribute its portfolio of permitted, past-producing conventional uranium mines in Utah to the new entity in exchange for 1.677 million shares. The transaction has combined IsoEnergy’s hard assets with DISA’s proprietary HPSA recovery technology and its remediation business.
The assets contributed by IsoEnergy include the Tony M, Daneros and Rim mines, in addition to the Sage Plain and Flatiron projects in Utah.
Concurrent with the transaction, DISA Uranium locked in a hefty US$105 million (A$158 million) private placement with backing from a suite of industry heavyweights including Tembo Capital, BHP Ventures, Halliburton Labs and Galvanize Climate Solutions.
IsoEnergy itself tipped US$33 million (A$50 million) into the financing, emerging as DISA Uranium’s largest shareholder, with a 33 per cent stake in the newly formed company.
With the deal complete and its war chest full, DISA Uranium plans to advance a multi-pronged strategy. The company intends to deploy its HPSA technology to recover uranium from abandoned mine waste, bring conventional US uranium production back online and develop domestic processing capacity for the hungry US nuclear power complex.
The Tony M Mine is expected to be a near-term priority for the new venture, with mining activities sitting idle on care and maintenance.
IsoEnergy chief executive officer and director Philip Williams said: “The completion of this Transaction unlocks the value of our Utah Portfolio while providing IsoEnergy with meaningful exposure to a differentiated U.S. uranium platform. As DISA Uranium's largest shareholder, we are excited to support its growth and participate in the significant opportunity ahead."
The move to create a specialised US production arm follows IsoEnergy’s recent major expansion into Australia through its acquisition of Toro Energy. The $75 million deal brought Toro's massive Wiluna uranium project in Western Australia into Iso's portfolio, adding more than 112 million pounds of uranium resources, including 78.1 million pounds in the higher-confidence measured and indicated categories.
IsoEnergy’s global inventory is underpinned by its Larocque East project in Canada’s Athabasca Basin, which hosts the Hurricane deposit - hosting one of the world’s highest-grade indicated uranium resources at a staggering 34.5 per cent uranium.
The formation of DISA Uranium appears to be another calculated step in IsoEnergy’s strategy to build a globally diversified, development-ready uranium platform. While the Toro acquisition secured a major Australian foothold, this latest transaction crystallises the value of its US assets and gives it direct exposure to a novel recovery technology, all while retaining significant global uranium resources.
With a world-class deposit in Canada, a large-scale project in Australia and now a technology-enabled production arm in the US, IsoEnergy appears to be methodically assembling a multi-jurisdictional uranium business at a time when Western nations are scrambling to secure friendly nuclear fuel sources.
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By Andrew Todd
