Anfield Energy has agreed to acquire the Marquez-Juan Tafoya uranium project located in New Mexico, US from enCore Energy in a cash and stock deal.
According to the terms of the agreement, Anfield Energy will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Neutron Energy, a fully-owned subsidiary of enCore Energy, which owns the uranium project as its only asset.
Under the transaction, enCore Energy will receive 185 million common shares of Anfield Energy as well as C$5m ($3.73m) in cash.
Besides, enCore Energy will be entitled to keep its percentage equity interest in Anfield Energy in subsequent share issuances for the period it owns at least 10% of the issued shares of the latter.
The divestiture is a part of enCore Energy’s ongoing efforts to offload uranium assets that are not in its production pipeline.
EnCore Energy executive chairman William Sheriff said: “enCore has acquired a series of quality U.S. projects through several mergers and acquisitions at a time when there were few competitors due to the industry downturn of recent years.
“We are now capitalising on those assets that do not meet our criteria for development such as early-stage projects and, in this case, an advanced project that is conventional in nature rather than In-Situ Recovery (ISR)-amenable.”
Located in the Grants Uranium Mineral District, 80.5km west-northwest of Alberquerque, the Marquez-Juan Tafoya project has a current resource estimate of 18.1 million pounds of uranium defined by 604 drill holes.
The project comprises two adjacent properties, Marquez and Juan Tafoya, which were previously developed separately by mining companies Kerr-McGee and Bokum Resources, respectively.
Anfield Energy CEO Corey Dias said: “As previously mentioned, we will continue to seek out prospective assets which align with our two-fold strategy of acquiring both near term and longer-term uranium and vanadium assets which will fit into our overall production plan.
“The near-term strategy centers on our advanced Utah and Colorado uranium and vanadium projects – Velvet Wood, West Slope and Slick Rock – underpinned by our wholly-owned Shootaring Canyon mill, one of only three licensed conventional mills in the U.S.”
Subject to stock exchange approval and other customary conditions, the acquisition is expected to be complete on or before 21 July 2023.
