US Oil Sands (TSX-V:USO) defied a weak market on Thursday and added almost 3% in thin trade after announcing a private placement to raise $9.1 million.
By the close the explorer and developer was trading up 2.9% at $0.18, the offer price for the 50 million new shares. The mining sector was generally weak on the day with the TSX S&P Global Mining index down 2.6%
The $45 million company is still showing losses for 2012 – it is down 5% year to date and is worth 47% less on the Toronto venture market than this time last year.
The Calgary-based company has a 100% interest in bitumen leases covering 32,005 acres of land in Utah’s Uinta basin.
“These initial funds will allow us to initiate construction on our PR Spring project, the first commercial oil sands extraction project in the US,” said Cameron Todd, CEO of US Oil Sands in a press release.
The PR Spring project is on-target for completion and start-up in the final quarter of next year. The company uses a modular construction method allowing for rapid construction in 2,000 barrel per day phases.
The initial 2,000 barrels per day facility is expected to cost $30 million to construct, while subsequent phases could be added at a cost of $25 million, US Oil Sands said, adding that it is looking for partners on the project.
2 Comments
Sreese420
Question, is all of this furor over fracking simply another ploy to get ‘cash payments’ for everyones’ ‘whip-lash’ health problems. I don’t believe that fracking is today’s Love Canal. It seems that as time marches on, we learn that fracking doen’t cause fluids to move up-hole into existing water zones nor can it be proved that, so far, waterwell containation isn’t being cause by other factors. This oil-sands project is interesting. The Uinta Basin has held a great deal of petroleum products for quite some time, having worked there in the mid-70’s
Sutton Compliance
Eastern US oil and gas extraction projects use hydro-fracking very often, but yet there is far less controversy over its use than in Canadian oil sands. Wonder if this new venture in Utah will result in some bad PR over the potential links between fracking and regional health problems. Read article for more http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53616678-78/utah-gas-wells-fracking.html.csp
@SCCcompliance