De Beers upbeat on Botswana diamond pact after meeting new president
De Beers' CEO said he expected negotiations on a new diamond sales pact with Botswana's government to be wrapped up within weeks.
Due to strong investor demand, GoviEx Uranium (TSXV: GXU) has revised its agreement with Sprott Capital Partners to increase the size of the recently announced bought deal financing from C$5 million to C$10 million. Sprott, on behalf of a syndicate of underwriters, will now purchase 45.5 million units of the company at a price of C$0.22 per unit.
Each unit issued under the offering will consist of one Class A common share and one-half of a common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant is exercisable at the US dollar equivalent price of C$0.33 for a period of three years.
The funds raised will be used for the continued development of GoviEx’s projects, bringing the company closer to its target of becoming a uranium producer by 2025, it said. Its main asset is the fully permitted Madaouela project in north-central Niger, one of the most significant areas of producing sandstone-hosted uranium.
The Madaouela property currently hosts five deposits that have been developed to a high level of confidence, with total uranium oxide resources of 111 million lb. in the measured and indicated category and 28 million lb. inferred. GoviEx has an 80% interest in the project, with the remaining 20% held by the Niger government.
In September 2022, a positive feasibility study was released for the Madaouela project, outlining a self-sustaining open pit operation that would produce over 50 million lb. of uranium oxide over 19 years. It has an after-tax net present value (at 8% discount) of $140 million and an internal rate of return of 13.3%.
Following the latest project milestone, GoviEx will now focus on progressing offtake and debt financing options for Madaouela. The FS report estimated the project’s initial capital costs at $343 million.
Proceeds of the latest financing will also be used for the Muntanga project in Zambia, where GoviEx aims to complete an FS by the end of 2023, and the continued exploration of its earlier-stage Falea project in Mali.
