www.marenicaenergy.com.au
Marenica Energy's (ASX: MEY) strategy is to focus on the evaluation of the Marenica Project as well as to identify and acquire other uranium opportunities globally.
The Company's principal asset is the Marenica Uranium Project located in the uranium rich Damara Province in Namibia. The project covers 527sq km, with high prospectivity for both secondary and primary uranium deposits.
Westhouse says Polo Resources’ decision to sell 10.5% stake in Marenica Energy to Areva is good news for Marenica’s ambitions in Namibia
Westhouse Securities elaborated on Marenica Energy's (ASX: MEY) (“Marencia”) announcement to the market (on 21 December) that Polo Resources (AIM: PRL)(“Polo”) had sold its 47.56 million shares or 10.57% stake in Marenica to French nuclear group, Areva.
The 47.56m Marenica shares are the remainder of 49.56m shares that Polo purchased in June 2009 at A$0.12 as part of Marenica raising A$9.9m. Polo retained the 24.78m options in Marenica it received as part of the fundraising. These are exercisable at A$0.25 each by 30 June 2011. Westhouse said this is good news for Marenica as Areva is the only real partner for the Marenica uranium project in Namibia which is adjacent to Areva’s Trejkoppe project.
Polo previously held 10.3m Berkeley Resources shares (ASX: BKY; AIM: BKY) and 5.67m options at A$0.75 but sold these over the summer in order to participate in the raising by Extract Resources. However, in discussions the company has always remained positive about the outlook for Berkeley.
As part of the deal, Areva will exercise its 10.6m options in Berkeley Resources and sell these shares plus its existing 3.5m shares to Polo. The difference in value, equivalent to ~6.4m Berkeley shares, will be met by Polo paying Areva A$7.42m - the average trading price over the ninety days prior to the 30 November 2009.
Over the summer, in order to participate in a fundraising in its largest investment Extract Resources (ASX: EXT), Polo closed several positions. These included selling its entire holding in Berkeley Resources and significantly reducing its holdings in A-Cap Resources (ASX: ACB), Impact Minerals (ASX: IPT), Marenica Energy (ASX: MEY) and Uranex (ASX: UNX).
As a consequence of the deal Berkeley announced on 12 January 2010 that Areva’s rights for off-take or marketing of the uranium production from Berkeley's projects had been terminated.
On 2 December Berkeley released the results of its scoping study for the Salamanca uranium project in Spain and hopes to have the feasibility study completed by November 2010.
As well as selling its entire holding in Berkeley over the summer, Polo also significantly reduced its holdings in A-Cap Resources, Impact Minerals, Marenica Energy and Uranex.
Polo sold down its stakes in A-Cap Resources and Impact Resources to China Growth Minerals Limited (CGM), a Hong Kong based investment company. CGM purchased 13 million A-Cap Resources shares and 5.92m shares in Impact Resources from Polo. CGM also has an option to purchase the remaining shares in A-Cap and Impact Polo hold at the 15-day Volume-Weighted Average Price (VWAP). The option expires on 23 March 2010.
