Sydney-based WCP Resources Ltd has announced plans to spin-off its South Australian and Western Australian uranium assets through an $8 million Initial Public Offer, the company announced today.
Sydney-based WCP Resources Ltd has announced plans to spin-off its South Australian and Western Australian uranium assets through an $8 million Initial Public Offer, the company announced today.
The full text of a company announcement is pasted below
The uranium exploration assets held by WCP Resources Limited in South Australia and Western Australia are to be spun off into a new uranium Initial Public Offering, named Uranoz Limited.
A prospectus for the A$8 million minimum raising for Uranoz is expected to be released in May 2007 with a planned listing on the Australian Stock Exchange around the middle of this year. The IPO is expected to require the approval of the shareholders of WCP in a general meeting, notice of which would be circulated in the near future.
The Directors of WCP Resources (ASX code "WCP") are pleased to announce that the new listed entity would hold all of WCP's interests in the Coulta uranium project in South Australia and the Goongarrie, Nangcarrow, Yalgoo, Warralakin, Lake Marmion and Myamin projects comprising 8 uranium exploration licences and / or applications in Western Australia. Following the IPO, Uranoz will also actively pursue additional uranium opportunities in Australia and overseas.
The Company said "We are long-term believers in the future of the uranium market and the benefits that uranium provides as a clean energy source. Whilst there is still not a unified political front in Australia or the world regarding the future development of uranium, our belief is that the global benefits of uranium will ultimately result in a long-term sustainable environment for adding value through responsible uranium exploration and mining."
Proposed Offer Terms
The proposed prospectus is for the issue of 40 million fully paid ordinary shares at 20 cents each to raise a minimum of $8 million, with the potential for the issue of an additional 10 million shares to raise $2 million in oversubscriptions.
WCP will hold 30 million shares, or between 34% and 43% of Uranoz, of the expected 70-80 million total shares to be on issue at listing. There will also be approximately 8 million options exercisable at 20 cents by May 2011 issued to the directors and executives of the company and the proposed sponsoring brokers, Taylor Collison Limited.
Entitlement to WCP Shareholders
WCP shareholders will have an entitlement to the Uranoz share offering of a proposed minimum of 20 million shares, the allocation of which will be at the discretion of the board of directors with a priority given to those WCP shareholders who hold a minimum of 20,000 shares as at the entitlement date. The entitlement date will be advised at the time of lodging of the prospectus.
The Company further stated that "Our view is that we will be able to provide greater value to our shareholders through a separate listing of our uranium interests in which all shareholders will be able to participate directly through Uranoz or indirectly through WCP's retained interest in Uranoz. As a separate company, Uranoz will be a dedicated uranium growth story which will actively pursue new opportunities in the global uranium sector."
Highly prospective and well balanced portfolio
Uranoz's assets will initially include:
South Australia: the joint venture interest in the Coulta Project, located on the southern Eyre Peninsula, covering 2,000 square kilometers. The Project covers two known tertiary paleochannels, Wanilla and Cummins, which are highly prospective for uranium. Recent drilling on the Coulta Project intersected palaeochannel sediments which were submitted for laboratory analyses. An aeromagnetic/radiometric survey was also recently flown over EL 3314 which provided new data to greatly assist in delineating palaeochannels and surface radiometric anomalies for future uranium exploration programs.
Western Australia: eight tenements covering over 840 square kilometers located within the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia which are considered prospective for both calcrete (surficial) and sedimentary hosted uranium deposits. The Nangcarrow, Goongarrie and Lake Marmion Projects have had limited previous exploration in the late 1970's. At the Goongarrie Project, numerous radiometric anomalies require testing with trenching returning high grades up to 0.543% U3O8. The Warralakin, Yalgoo and Myamin Projects all contain high tenor uranium airborne radiometric anomalies, in close proximity to hot source granites apparent in radiometrics.