Gordon Miller, CEO, Simmer & Jack Mines and First Uranium Corporation.
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First Uranium to seek JVs, deals
David McKay
Posted: Tue, 02 Jan 2007

[miningmx.com] -- FIRST Uranium Corp., the exploration firm in which the JSE’s Simmer & Jack Mines (Simmers) has a 65% stake, said it would seek acquisitions and joint ventures to complement its existing projects in South Africa.

“We plan to pursue an aggressive acquisition programme in southern Africa and enter into joint ventures,” said Gordon Miller, CEO of First Uranium and Simmers in an interview.

There are about 20 uranium plants still in South Africa from the last uranium boom, suggesting that there was significant uranium resources that could be developed, Miller said.

First Uranium Corp raised C$203m in an initial public offering on December 20. Including an over-allotment agreement with First Uranium’s undewriting banking syndicate, a total of C$232m was raised. This was about C$60m more than expected, Miller disclosed.

In addition, First Uranium Corp. had a loan facility with South African bank Investec totalling US$115m which would be finalised after meeting a number of conditions precedent including ratification of a management structure. Miller said he would remain CEO of both First Uranium Corp. and Simmers. “I have a chief operating officer for both companies so there’s no problem there,” he said.

Feedback from the listing had been positive, said Miller. The Canadians were interested in the company because with production scheduled for the second quarter of 2008, it was considered a near-production company. “We’re still trading at a discount to our peers,” he said. Converting more resources to reserves would “take First Uranium up the value curve,” he said.
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Uranium financings in 2006 totalled C$1.8bn, according to a Globe & Mail report of December 20 with much of the focus falling on near-term producers. Australia’s Paladin Resources raised $250m and C$155m was secured by sxr Uranium One in addition to $340m in two stock sales, Globe & Mail said.

“We don’t have an aggressive timeline on our development schedule and we can comfortably achieve our milestones,” Miller said. “We’ve seen what sxr (Uranium One) and Paladin have done, and we know that uranium companies tend to attract a premium to net asset value the closer they edge to production,” he said.

First Uranium reported inferred uranium resources at its Ezulwini project in South Africa of about 50 million pounds in a description of its business on the Simmers website.