Toro Halves Debt In $12m Deal With Major Shareholder, The Sentient Group

$6.0M secured, interest free loan from Sentient, maturing in 3 years;

$2.5M placement to Sentient of 31.2M shares at $0.08 per share as part of the transaction announced on 3 November 2014 (2014 Sentient Transaction);

$3.0M released from the $10M Unitisation funds received from Sentient under the 2014 Sentient Transaction; and

$0.5M of existing working capital.

The deal halves the Company’s current $12 million debt, converting it to a $6 million secured, interest free loan owed to Sentient on better terms than the existing Macquarie facility. Sentient will be issued 75M options in connection with the Loan. The options are exercisable at $0.08 and expire at maturity of the Loan in three years (or earlier in certain circumstances).

The agreement also concludes the transaction by Toro with Sentient announced on 3 November, 2014, with the issue to Sentient of 31.2 million deferred subscription shares at $0.08 per share for $2.5 million and a further issue of 59.1 million shares to complete the acquisition from Sentient of various assets of Canadian-based Strateco Resources (“Strateco”), including secured loans. Strateco is the owner of the Matoush Uranium Project in Quebec.

The Company became aware on 8 June 2015 that Strateco notified the Superior Court of Montreal that it had become insolvent and subsequently on 9 June 2015 filed for an initial order under the Canadian Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. Toro’s secured loans in Strateco are protected by a first ranking security over their assets, including the Matoush Uranium Project.

On completion of the transactions announced today, and pending no other new corporate developments, Sentient will be an 18.3% shareholder of Toro (currently 14.4%).

Toro Managing Director, Dr Vanessa Guthrie, said today the new financial structure strengthens Toro’s position as the Company enters the new 2015-16 financial year, and enables Toro to fund further project optimisation studies and the definitive feasibility study for its advanced Wiluna Uranium project in Western Australia.

Toro is looking to bring Wiluna to market to coincide with the predicted uplift in global uranium demand in the second half of this decade.

Toro already has the approval of the Western Australian and Federal Governments to establish a processing facility and commence mining of two of Wiluna’s deposits, Centipede and Lake Way, and the Company is currently undergoing the government environmental assessment and approval processes to mine two additional deposits at Wiluna, Millipede and Lake Maitland.

Toro Energy is a uranium development and exploration stage mining company based in Perth, Western Australia.

Toro’s flagship asset is the 100% owned Wiluna Uranium Project, consisting of six calcrete hosted uranium deposits. The project is located 30 kilometres southwest of Wiluna in Central Western Australia. The Centipede and Lake Way deposits have received government environmental approval providing the Wiluna Project with the opportunity to be Western Australia’s first uranium mine.

Toro also owns a highly prospective suite of exploration properties highlighted by Toro’s own discovery at the Theseus Project. The Company also has investments in Canadian and Namibian uranium assets.

Toro is also pursuing growth opportunities through accretive uranium project acquisitions.

www.toroenergy.com.au TOE – A member of the All Ordinaries Index