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Tokyo, Oct 16, 2008 - (ACN Newswire) - Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Head office: Tokyo, Japan, CEO: Shoei Utsuda) has decided to acquire the interests in six uranium deposits held by Uranium One Inc. (Head office: Vancouver, Canada, CEO: Jean Nortier), which include the Honeymoon uranium project located in the State of South Australia, Australia, and signed the sale and purchase agreement and the joint venture agreement for joint development of those projects with the company. The total amount of development investment which Mitsui will bear regarding this business and purchase price of the interest is estimated to be A$104 million (approximately 7.3 billion yen).
While the uranium assets which Mitsui acquires through this transaction are still undeveloped, the Honeymoon project has already obtained the mining license and construction work on it has been started. The commencement of commercial production at the Honeymoon project is expected sometime from the end of 2009 to 2010, and its annual production will be about 400tU3O8 with a production period of 6 years.
The development expenditure of Honeymoon project will be borne by Uranium One and Mitsui in proportion with each respective JV share (Uranium One: 51%, Mitsui: 49%).
As for other projects, Uranium One and Mitsui will jointly conduct exploration activities and elaborate a detailed business plan.
The sale and purchase agreement and joint venture agreement are conditional upon statutory approval by the relevant Australian governmental authorities. Uranium One and Mitsui are targeting to complete the deal within this year.
This investment is the first uranium project for Mitsui. Mitsui has long experiences in the area of developing overseas energy resources such as oil, LNG and coal and so forth. In terms of uranium resources as fuel for nuclear power generation, Mitsui will continue to investigate any investment opportunities around the world in view of contributing to security of energy supply on a global basis.
Overview of Uranium One
Uranium One, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in South Africa, is an international uranium producing company with attributable uranium production in 2007 of approximately 900tU3O8, thereby ranking as one of the 10 largest uranium producers in the world. Uranium One has assets in Australia, North America and Kazakhstan and Souoth Africa.
Oct 16, 2008
Topic: Corporate Announcement
Sectors: Metals & Mining
http://www.acnnewswire.com
From the Asia Corporate News Network
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