Uranium enrichment investment completed

Our uranium development and enrichment Investment, Okapi Resources (ASX: OKR) has just finalised its uranium enrichment investment.

The deal sees OKR take an initial 19.9% interest in Ubaryon (the private company that holds the enrichment tech) for a total consideration of A$3.1 million.

As part of the deal, OKR Managing Director Andrew Ferrier will join the Ubaryon board. This will mean OKR’s involvement in the private company isn't only based on a capital injection but is also at the board level.

Here’s a very high level summary of the uranium enrichment space:

1. Uranium needs to be enriched before it can be used as fuel in nuclear power stations.
   
2. OKR is one of only two ASX-listed companies with exposure to uranium enrichment. The only other company is Silex Systems, capped at $930M while OKR is capped at $23M. We do note Silex has been developing its technology for decades and is a lot more advanced in the commercialisation of its technology.
   
3. While Silex’s tech uses lasers to enrich spent uranium fuel cells, OKR is looking to take raw uranium and enrich it to commercial grades through a chemical uranium enrichment technology. OKR’s tech (because it is a chemical process) could therefore be more cost effective, environmentally friendly, and less technically challenged.

It is still early days for OKR’s enrichment investment, but we think it could be a major part of the OKR story in the future (assuming the technology is able to be commercialised).

What’s next for OKR?

OKR also has uranium exploration assets in the Athabasca Basin in Canada (home to some of the highest grade uranium projects in the world) and resource stage projects in Colorado, USA.

At present, the focus for OKR is on the Canadian exploration projects with drilling permits already in place for up to 40 drill holes at the Newnham Lake Uranium Project.

OKR is now focused on completing geophysical surveys, interpreting the data and ranking drill targets ahead of a drill program in the North American summer months (around mid-2023).