Embargoed until 7am on
23rd May, 2013
URU Metals Limited
("URU" or "the Company")
URU Metals Expands into Sweden with the acquisition
of Svenska Skifferoljeaktiebolaget
URU Metals Limited, (AIM:URU), the base metals and uranium explorer and development company, today announces that it has acquired an interest in six mineral exploration licenses in central Sweden, known as the Narke Project by purchasing the entire issued share capital of Svenska Skifferoljeaktiebolaget ("SSOAB") from the vendor Global Hydrocarbons Limited ("GHL"), for an initial consideration of US$300,000 and 17,000,000 million ordinary shares in URU Metals, representing 12.8 per cent of the Company.
A further cash-payment of US$200,000 will be made upon the successful completion of the first drilling exploration program on the properties. Based upon a price of 2.25 pence per URU share (being the closing share price of URU shares on 21 May 2013) the maximum total consideration of the transaction is $1.078 million.
SSOAB's main assets are the ownership of six mineral exploration licenses in Sweden.
Located in Narke Province, approximately 150 km from west-south-west of Stockholm, near the regional centre of Orebro, the exploration licenses cover approximately 7,087 ha of land overlying prospective Alum Shale outcrops with known high levels of kerogen (which can be converted to oil), and metals such as uranium, vanadium, molybdenum and nickel.
The property is subject to a net-profits-interest royalty of 5 per cent on profits from any mineral produced from the property, after all costs are recovered, including pre-production exploration and development expenditures.
BACKGROUNG INFORMATION AND RATIONALE FOR THE ACQUISITION
Sweden is one of the world's most favourable mining jurisdictions. Between 1941 through 1966, a Swedish government-owned company produced 61 tonnes of uranium (134,500 lbs) and established an oil-recovery plant on the project, which recovered approximately 159,100 m3 of petroleum (1 million barrels) and 418,400 m3 of fuel oil (2.6 million barrels),
The Alum shale is world renown as being one of the world's largest repositories of metals, particularly uranium. Perceived uranium resources within the Alum Shales are generally believed to be larger than most of the combined uranium resources from the producing global uranium districts. Although an economic recovery of uranium from the Alum Shale has not yet been developed, technological advances in the last decade make this project potentially viable.
URU's focus will be on reducing risk by proving that a co-recovery extraction process can be developed using existing technologies before incurring significant investment into proving up uranium and oil mineral resources and reserves.
Historic drill holes testing the Alum Shale on the existing licenses were completed by previous explorers, indicating that good thickness of the Alum Shale are present across all the mineral licenses being acquired by URU.
Commenting on the acquistion, Roger Lemaitre, CEO of URU Metals said:
"This is a project that between 1941 and 1966 produced approximately 61 tonnes of uranium (134,500 lbs), 159,100 m3 of petroleum (1 million barrels) and 418,400 m3 of fuel oil (2.6 million barrels) and is in one of the world's most favourable mining jurisdictions.
Oil production from the Swedish Government ceased in 1966 as the world developed its cheaper conventional oil plays. Improved metal and oil extraction technologies and encouraging historic data provide us with a real opportunity to develop this project and we believe that the addition of the Narke Project to our portfolio of assets, will in the long term provide value to our shareholders."
A finders fee for this transaction will be paid to third parties and will be comprised of US$25,000 cash and the issuing of 2,500,000 shares (the 'Finders Fee Shares') that will be admitted to trading on the AIM.
Application will be made for the 19,500,000 million New Ordinary Shares issued to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"). Admission is expected to take place on or around 31 May 2013.
Following Admission of the New Ordinary Shares and the Finders Fee Shares, the Company's enlarged issued share capital will comprise of 132,776,722 Ordinary Shares ("Ordinary Shares") with each share carrying one vote per share.
Based upon the latest information disclosed to us by our major shareholders, on completion of the transaction, our major shareholders will be:
· NWT Uranium will be directly interested in 49,773,339 ordinary shares, representing 37.49% of the enlarged issued share capital
· GHL will be directly interested in 17,000,000 Ordinary Shares, representing 12.80% of the enlarged share capital
· Hargreave Hale Limited will be directly interested in 11,072,345 Ordinary Shares representing 8.34% of the enlarged issued share capital and;
· Pension Financial Services Ltd will be directly interested in 7,430,925 Ordinary Shares, representing 5.60%.
Additional information regarding the Narke Project can be found on the Company's website at www.urumetals.com.
-Ends -
Contact details:
URU Metals Limited Roger Lemaitre, CEO
|
+ 1 416 892 2870
|
WH Ireland Limited (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker) Adrian Hadden James Bavister
|
+ 44 207 220 1666 |
Ribeiro Communications Ana Ribeiro |
+44 (0) 7980 321 505 |