AMN - NAMIBIA: Deep Yellow to use Marenica technology

Marenica Energy has entered into a definitive and binding Technology Licence Agreement (TLA) with Deep Yellow. Under the TLA, Marenica will provide its U-pgradeTM technology and expertise to Deep Yellow for use towards development of the Tumas project in Namibia in return for a Licence Fee for the entire life of the project.

Both parties sought to formalise the TLA after the successful test work program recently completed by Marenica on the Tumas ore. Highlights:

• The commercialisation agreement follows a successful test work program on Deep Yellow’s Tumas ore demonstrating U-pgrade has the potential to dramatically reduce the CAPEX and OPEX for the Tumas project

• Deploying Marenica’s technology creates a path for the Tumas project to proceed ahead of other competing projects at a significantly lower uranium incentive price

• Landmark Deep Yellow agreement for Marenica provides model resource and technology value share template with the potential to be replicated on other suitable orebodies.

Marenica’s U-pgrade technology can potentially deliver such significant project and operating cost savings as to fundamentally impact the competitiveness of projects with suitable ores. Accordingly, under the TLA the two parties share the potentially considerable value created by combining the resource with the technology. The TLA represents a landmark agreement for Marenica.

Deep Yellow will have the ability to apply Marenica’s U-pgrade technology in return for a long term Licence Fee which equates to around 25% of the NPV of the Tumas project under a range of possible development scenarios.

So long as the positive test results achieved to date continue, both parties are confident that the agreement has the potential to lower the uranium price hurdle for the Tumas project and bring development forward in the queue of projects waiting to be developed.

Marenica managing director Murray Hill says: “We have long identified Deep Yellow’s Tumas project as a good fit for our first commercialisation agreement, based on the project’s high suitability for our technology, the project’s relatively advanced stage of development and the excellent cultural fit between the two companies. Importantly, the project is located in Namibia, a jurisdiction that is highly supportive of the uranium mining industry and with operating uranium mines in close proximity that could take the U-pgrade concentrate.”

This agreement with Deep Yellow represents a watershed milestone for Marenica, being the first commercialisation transaction for the breakthrough U-pgrade technology. Although Marenica has been confident for some time in the capacity of the technology to dramatically transform the economics of surficial uranium deposits, this agreement demonstrates that resource owners can see the technology’s value proposition, strengthening the prospects for further licence agreements commercialising the U-pgrade technology to follow.

www.marenicaenergy.com.au

www.deepyellow.com.au

News courtesy of International Mining