Eagle Nuclear Energy to acquire Noble Plains Uranium 

Eagle Nuclear Energy (NASDAQ: NUCL) announced Wednesday it has signed a binding Letter of Intent (LOI) to acquire 100% of Noble Plains Uranium (TSX-V: NOBL, OTCQB: NBLXF, FSE: INE0) in an all-stock transaction. 

The deal will expand Eagle’s resource footprint beyond Oregon, where it is advancing its Aurora uranium project, which it says is the largest mineable uranium deposit in the US. The company’s land package spans the Oregon-Nevada border, with the mine on the Oregon side and the plant on the Nevada side. 

Under the LOI and subject to a definitive agreement, Eagle will acquire 100% of Noble Plains’ issued and outstanding common shares at a deemed price of C$0.125 per Noble Plains’ share. Based on the Exchange Ratio of 0.0167 Eagle shares for each Noble Plains share, the offer price represents a premium of approximately 92% to the closing price of Noble Plains shares on the TSXV on October 29 of C$0.065.  

Upon closing it is anticipated that existing Eagle stockholders will hold approximately 95.22% and former Noble Plains shareholders will hold approximately 4.78% of the equity of Eagle, on an issued and outstanding share basis. 

Noble Plains is a U.S.-focused uranium exploration and development company advancing two In-Situ Recovery (ISR)-amenable projects strategically located within two of the country’s most prolific uranium districts in Wyoming.  

Noble Plains’ ISR portfolio combines brownfield projects covering ~5,965 acres of demonstrated ISR geology in close proximity to established operators. 

Noble Plains has an option to acquire an 80% interest in its flagship Duck Creek project located in the Powder River basin of Wyoming that hosts a U?O? resource, reported on a 100% basis, containing 5.32M lbs in the Indicated category and an additional 1.04M lbs in the Inferred category, as reported by Noble Plains under the Canadian NI 43-101 regulatory standards.  

Eagle said its technical team believes this current resource estimate represents a relatively small portion of the total resource potential at Duck Creek, as it covers only 2.5 miles of a total 5.25-mile trend, and sits entirely in the shallower of two prospective mineralized formations.  

The company said it plans to unlock significantly more value at Duck Creek through the execution of a systematically phased exploration program over the next 12-18 months. 

Noble Plains’ Shirley Central is an earlier-stage uranium project that represents additional prospectivity for developing U?O? resources in the strategically prominent Shirley basin of Wyoming. 

“This transaction gives Eagle greater scale at a time when demand for U.S. uranium is growing,” Eagle Nuclear Energy CEO Mark Mukhija said in a news release.  

“Noble Plains adds established resources in Wyoming and strengthens our portfolio with favorable ISR geology. We believe we can move these assets forward efficiently while we continue to work towards development of an integrated nuclear energy platform combining domestic uranium resources with advanced SMR technology,” Mukhija said.  

“We’ve proven we can acquire uranium assets with historical data, move them forward quickly and add value without having to recreate decades of work,” Noble Plains CEO Drew Zimmerman added. “Combining with Eagle gives us more scale and the capital to keep executing that strategy. We have a strong resource at Duck Creek, more opportunity across the portfolio and existing uranium infrastructure all around us.”  

Eagle’s stock was down 2.8% on the NASDAQ at Wednesday’s closing. The company has a $123.5 million market capitalization.  Noble Plains stock closed the day up 13% on the TSX.