Categories: Energy
Topics: General Energy

Consolidated Uranium (TSX-V: CUR)(OTC: CURUF) CEO Philip Williams on Uranium-Copper-Gold-Rare Earths Acquisition in Queensland, Australia

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president & CEO of Consolidated Uranium — Mr. Philip Williams. Phil, how are you today?

Philip Williams: I'm really well, Gerardo. How are you doing?

Gerardo Del Real: I am well. We spoke, I think, less than two weeks ago. And at that time, we were chatting about the acquisition of the multiple past-producing uranium mine projects from Energy Fuels. 

You had some news yesterday where, obviously, you're busy, because you just acquired a uranium-copper-gold-rare earth project that is very interesting to me in Queensland, Australia. Congrats on the deal! 

Can you walk me through the project and how you stumbled upon this… because I can probably guess that you didn't stumble upon it? 

Philip Williams: Yeah, thank you… and we're very excited about it. And look, the Energy Fuels assets are marquee projects and so, clearly, that's the focus. But I think what people need to understand about our company is that we're always on the lookout for new opportunities. And this fit in that basket. 

Of course, we've been looking at it for a while. But we have this beachhead of assets already in Queensland with our Ben Lomond and Georgetown projects. Those were the first uranium projects that we acquired as a company almost two years ago now. And we have people in Brisbane who are on the ground, and they alerted us to this asset maybe six months ago.

And I will tell you that, originally, I didn't think it was for us. I thought… okay, it's multiple commodities… we're a uranium-focused company. But then, as I started to look at it more, I saw exploration potential… I saw in-ground resources… I saw rare earths. 

And certainly, as we look to develop uranium in Queensland, having other commodities, I think, is going to be a very big benefit for the company. So we jumped all over it… been working on it for now, maybe, two months and very happy to get it on the tape.

Gerardo Del Real: The mineral package… the commodities that you now gain exposure to are the right ones, right? It's uranium, it's copper, it's gold, and it's rare earths. 

Tell me a bit about the project and just what the plan is as far as exploration goes. You talk about being very, very aggressive in 2022 with the suite of projects that you've been able to roll into Consolidated Uranium. What's going to be the approach here?

Philip Williams: Well, it's interesting and you're right. So we've pivoted in a sense. Originally, Consolidated was… bring the projects together and sit and wait for the market to come to us, and then go and do work.

Well, the market is here now. So now, we're going to get to work. And what we really like about Milo, on top of the existing resource — and the owners of the project, GBM, had spent quite a lot of money on it not only outlining these historic resources that are in our press release and putting some economics around it — but what they hadn't done was they hadn't really tested the full exploration potential of the project. 

And if you look at that press release, there’s a map… and there are two areas to the north and to the south that look identical to the current resource. So I think the really low-hanging fruit for us is… let's go out there and let's see if we can add to those resources by simply testing those new targets. And if they come in — then there's no telling how big this project could get.

Gerardo Del Real: That's exciting stuff. How is the financing coming along and the spin out of Labrador Uranium?

Philip Williams: Well, we've been busy both on the new project acquisition front… but on the financing front, as you say, we're going to close on the Labrador financing tomorrow. 

We went out to raise C$3 to C$5 million. We're going to close on C$8 million. And that sets that company up extremely well for an aggressive exploration program next year. 

The company will be public in January-February time. 

Consolidated, of course, we also announced a financing just recently. We're going to close on that next week. That was upsized from C$15 million; we're going to raise C$20 million. 

And I can tell you that Energy Fuels is going to participate on top of that. And so we're actually going to end up raising C$25 million through that financing. And so we're going to be extremely well cashed-up as a company for an exciting year next year.

Gerardo Del Real: It's a lot to look forward to; a lot of news flow from both companies. Congrats on all the hard work. I'll let you get back to it. Thank you for your time today, Phil.

Philip Williams: Thanks, Gerardo. I'll look forward to speaking to you again very soon.

Gerardo Del Real: Chat soon, take care.