Valor Resources Ltd (ASX:VAL) has established a $5.4 million war chest to support exploration across its Athabasca Basin uranium portfolio in Canada.
The uranium explorer secured the funding runway thanks to a 319-million share placement, which issued securities at A$0.0171 each — a 7% premium to the last closing price.
Valor will use the cash injection to expand and accelerate exploration across its two main Athabasca Basin properties: the Hook Lake and Cluff Lake uranium assets.
It hopes to complete up to 5,000 metres of diamond drilling at Hook Lake and as much as 2,500 metres at Cluff Lake in the near future.
The capital raise will also support work programs on five other uranium projects in the basin — the Surprise Creek, Lorado and Smitty mines, Hidden Bay and Pendleton Lake assets.
“Aggressively advance projects”
Speaking to the placement, Valor executive chairman George Bauk said: “The flow-through funding completed this week has provided the company with the funds to aggressively advance the projects in 2022, with the first key activity being the Hook Lake drilling program, which is set to commence in early January.
“Camp construction is scheduled for early December 2021 and we are currently finalising the selection of a drilling contractor.
“We have put the effort in to ensure we have designed the drilling program to target our highest priority targets.
“The team is well credentialed with experienced geoscientists who have explored for uranium across many continents and in particular the Athabasca Basin.
“We have seven quality projects and following the completion of the drilling program at Hook Lake, we will have a group of geoscientists continue working on the other properties.
“Cluff Lake will be the initial focus, but we will continue to look for quality exploration targets on all of our projects in the basin."
Placement details
With the newly minted $5.4 million under its wing, Valor’s share issue price represents a 7% premium to its last closing price and a 4% discount to the 15-day volume-weighted average price.
The company was able to issue the new shares at a premium because they were issued under the Canadian flow-through share regime.
Essentially, this provides tax incentives to eligible investors for expenditures that qualify as 'flow-through' mining expenditures under Canada’s Income Tax Act.
Further details are tabled below:
Exploring Canada’s world-class uranium province
Thanks to the funding runway, Valor has its eye trained on two key projects within Canada’s world-class Athabasca uranium province.
The ASX-lister has completed airborne and ground geophysics surveys on both properties ahead of proposed diamond drilling.
At Hook Lake, Valor hopes to drill test targets unearthed from a data review early in the new year.
It’s currently planning to drill between 10 and 15 holes, each reaching between 200 and 250 metres deep.
On the Cluff Lake project, Valor is honing in on two prospective zones for follow-up exploration.
The uranium explorer hopes to complete further data compilation in the new year as it readies to drill at the Northern and Central targets later in 2022.
At its five other Athabasca properties, Valor is out to compile historical data and rank its projects for a ground-based work program.
From here, it aims to progress its top asset to drill-ready status by the end of 2022.
In today’s ASX announcement, Bauk concluded: “Uranium is a key ingredient in the global push for a net-zero carbon emission strategy.
“This energy source provides the world with a clean and reliable baseload solution to our changing energy source.
“Canada is a world-class mining and exploration jurisdiction and has a world-class uranium province in the Athabasca Basin, home to the highest average uranium grade produced over the last 60 years.”