Aura Energy (ASX: AEE) has raised $325,871 from a share purchase plan, with the company also receiving a $700,000 tax rebate earlier in the month for the metallurgical research and development program it carried out on the Häggån uranium resource in Sweden.
The share purchase plan follows on from a placement in May where commitments were received to place 10 million shares at $0.08 to raise around $0.8 million.
The company’s work at Häggån revolved around the commercial extract of uranium from the low-grade mineralisation of the Scandinavian black shale deposits, which had not been carried out before.
Aura’s initial testing led it the use of heap leaching using naturally-occurring bacteria, which is in commercial use for copper and gold deposits elsewhere in the world, to extract the uranium.
The company is now preparing to proceed with a Pre-Feasibility Study and is also examining alternative funding opportunities, which includes a possible joint venture arrangement with a larger strategic partner. Aura is in a four-month Cooperation Agreement with the large French uranium mining company, Areva Mines SA.
Häggån has an Inferred Resource of 803 million pounds of U3O8 and is located in the Alum Shale Province - one of the largest depositories of uranium in the world.
Aura also has uranium interests in Africa and Australia, which combined provide the company with a global Inferred Resource of 860 million pounds (389,000 tonnes).
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