Source: Gerardo Del Real for Streetwise Reports 05/08/2018
Todd Hilditch and Glenn Catchpole of URZ Energy speak with Gerardo Del Real of Resource Stock Digest about the company’s just-announced merger with Azarga Uranium.
Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is CEO of URZ Energy Corp. (URZ:TSX.V; URZZF:OTC), Mr. Glenn Catchpole, and Executive Chairman of URZ, Mr. Todd Hilditch.
It’s an important day for you, for the company. Congratulations are in order to you and to shareholders. You announced the merger of URZ with Azarga Uranium Corp. (AZZ:TSE) to create a new U.S.-focused ISR uranium development company. I think it’s an important announcement, but before I get to the details of the transaction, I want to talk about your past success because you have a track record of serial success in the U.S. I believe that’s an important factor to look at when we analyze this particular piece of news today. Can you speak a bit to your past successes, and then we can talk about why you thought this deal was right now at the right time to consummate?
Glenn Catchpole: Well, I won’t go way back. As you know, I’ve got 40 years in the uranium business, and most of that in the U.S., and worked for small companies, medium companies, and the largest company, Cameco, over time. And developed a project in Kazakhstan that turned out to be the biggest uranium mine in the world, and brought that into the first stage of production.
Then, back in the U.S., I hooked up with Dennis Higgs. And we acquired properties focused in Wyoming. I ended up with the Nichols Ranch Project, which we assimilated not only data that was there from the key player, for our Nichols Ranch, but also acquired properties in the vicinity, the Arkose property now, the Hank property. It’s a nice setup now. We hit that at a good time, if you forget about Fukushima, but came out well and had that transaction with Energy Fuels, which was the right thing for us to do, and we’re very pleased with it.
And now onto this latest venture, and again, with Dennis, and now Todd that Dennis introduced me to. We think we’ve put together an excellent team. We started out with properties that Todd and his group acquired, as you pointed out, at $0.03 a pound. From recent work we’ve done on Gas Hills, I’m actually very optimistic that someday that will also be a producer. It’s not just that we picked up some scattered properties. That one, in particular, I think has real potential.
Then we moved on the Dewey Burdock. Actually, I’ve been following that for a long time, and the property has been around for quite a while. With Uranerz Energy, back when we were together there, we actually did due diligence on that property. We were really hoping to get it. I’m going to come back to that in a minute, but somehow, for whatever reason, we didn’t get it. We tried hard, because I was very, very keen on it. Now, there’s been a lot of what we would call negative thoughts about it because of the permitting.
In my early days in the business, I was involved heavily with permitting. And with the NRC now very close for us, dealing with one outstanding issue that just takes time to do it, it’s not a matter that it could cause us not to be licensed by them. We were already licensed, it’s just another step we have to do. But I’m very confident that we will, as Azarga URZ, we will get through that. Yes, there’s some public concern up in that part of South Dakota, but Azarga’s got a good staff person up there, working on the public relations. In the end we will prevail, and we can move forward. But I have frequently touted it as sort of a premiere property that I always wanted to end up with.
And not only do they have the Dewey Burdock, but there’s more potential in there. It’s like Nichols Ranch, when we first started that out we had one number for resources, but with exploration and getting a better handle on where the fronts were going, you can increase that. I see that same potential here at Dewey Burdock. It’s going to be a significant operation one of these days.
Gerardo Del Real: Let’s talk about Dewey Burdock, just a little. For those that are not familiar with the property, it will be the flagship asset of the merged company once the transaction closes. Once this merger closes, the merged company will have 30.7 million pounds in the measured and indicated category, and I believe in addition an inferred resource of 8.7 million pounds, all in the U.S.
Todd Hilditch: Yes, that’s the total of the merged companies. Collectively that’s what we would have under the umbrella of all of us.
Gerardo Del Real: Let’s talk about the mindset going into this deal. What was the thinking when you’re taking into consideration the macro situation in the uranium space? We have the lowest cost, largest producers in the world saying that these uranium prices are not sustainable, and those are good allies to have because they’ve said they’re going to do everything in their power to create, frankly, a higher uranium price and a better balance between supply and demand. How did you approach the transaction and was that a big motivator for you to continue focusing here in the U.S.?
Todd Hilditch: Gerardo, everything you’ve just outlined is really the roadmap. When we put these together originally—this is pre-announcement of Azarga—part of the balance that we struck is we were a brand-new company. Glenn and Dennis and Uranerz had done it, and the environment has changed, though, going to your point.
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From:: The Energy Report