Uranium purchases are planned to be made in the uranium spot market, with a target of accumulating approximately 2.5 million pounds U3O8
Denison announces funding of project finance initiative involving strategic acquisition of physical uranium. (Credit: aymane jdidi from Pixabay)
Denison Mines Corp. (“Denison” or the “Company”) (TSX: DML) (NYSE American: DNN) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Cantor Fitzgerald Canada Corporation (“CFCC”), as lead underwriter and sole book-runner, on behalf of themselves and a syndicate of underwriters (collectively with CFCC, the “Underwriters”), under which the Underwriters have agreed to purchase, on a bought deal basis, 68,200,000 units of the Company (the “Units”) at the price of USD$1.10 per Unit (the “Issue Price”) for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately USD$75 million (the “Unit Offering”).
Net proceeds of the Unit Offering are anticipated to be used to fund the strategic purchase of uranium concentrates (“U3O8” or “Uranium”) to be held by Denison as a long-term investment, intended to support the potential future financing of the advancement and/or construction of the Company’s flagship 90% owned Wheeler River Uranium Project (“Wheeler River”). Uranium purchases are planned to be made in the uranium spot market, with a target of accumulating approximately 2.5 million pounds U3O8.
The purchased Uranium is expected to strengthen the Company’s balance sheet and enhance its ability to access future project financing, with the potential collateralization of the Uranium holdings. In addition, the purchased Uranium could provide the Company with increased flexibility to negotiate long-term Uranium supply arrangements with future customers. If a future decision is made to advance Wheeler River into construction, the Company would eventually market its physical Uranium holdings to its future customers along with the mine production from Wheeler River.
This press release constitutes a “designated news release” for the purposes of the Company’s prospectus supplement dated November 13, 2020 to its short form base shelf prospectus dated June 2, 2020.
David Cates, President and CEO of Denison, commented, “Public support for carbon-free, base-load nuclear energy continues to grow as part of the clean energy-transition movement. Denison is well positioned to participate in this exciting narrative through the potential future development of our flagship Wheeler River uranium project. With the uranium market showing continued signs of incremental improvement in supply and demand fundamentals, this strategic financing is being undertaken at an ideal time for Denison – supporting the opportunistic acquisition of physical Uranium to hold as a long-term strategic capital asset.
The physical Uranium holdings that we expect to acquire will represent a sizeable portion of Denison’s share (2018 Pre-Feasibility Study) of the expected CAD$290 million of initial capital costs for Wheeler River. As a result, we expect this transaction to enhance the long-term financial stability of the company, as we advance towards a definitive development decision. From a project finance standpoint, the physical Uranium holdings could potentially de-risk the process by representing a meaningful source of collateral. Similarly, we expect that our future customers will value, as part of potential future discussions regarding off-take or long-term contracting arrangements, the fact that our Company will already have a sizeable base of physical Uranium before achieving first production from Wheeler River.
Importantly, with this transaction, Denison’s joins other major publicly-traded uranium companies that have disclosed sizeable physical uranium purchases in recent years, and we have broken the conventional equity dilution model for mining development companies – as our shareholders will benefit from the additional financial stability of our Uranium holdings, while remaining fully leveraged to any future appreciation of uranium prices during the balance of the environmental assessment and feasibility study processes currently planned for Wheeler River.”
Unit Offering
Each Unit will consist of one common share in the capital of the Company (a “Common Share”) and one-half of one transferable common share purchase warrant of the Company (each whole warrant, a “Warrant”). Each Warrant is exercisable to acquire one Common Share (a “Warrant Share”) at an exercise price of USD$2.25 per Warrant Share for 24 months after issuance. The Warrants will not be listed.
In addition, Denison has agreed to grant to the Underwriters an over-allotment option (the “Over-Allotment Option”) exercisable, in whole or in part, at the sole discretion of the Underwriters (subject to certain agreed upon limitations), to purchase up to approximately an additional 10,230,000 Units at the Issue Price for a period of up to 30 days after the closing of the Unit Offering, for potential additional gross proceeds to Denison of up to approximately USD$11.25 million.
Denison will pay to the Underwriters a cash commission equal to 5% of the gross proceeds of the Unit Offering, including any proceeds received from the exercise of the Over-Allotment Option.
The Unit Offering will be made by way of a prospectus supplement (the “Prospectus Supplement”) to the Company’s existing Canadian short form base shelf prospectus dated June 2, 2020 (the “Base Shelf Prospectus”). The Prospectus Supplement will be filed with the securities commissions in each of the provinces and territories of Canada, except Quebec and is available on the SEDAR website maintained by the Canadian Securities Administrators at www.sedar.com. Alternatively, the Prospectus Supplement and related Base Shelf Prospectus may be obtained upon request by contacting the Company or Cantor Fitzgerald Canada Corporation in Canada, attention: Equity Capital Markets, 181 University Avenue, Suite 1500, Toronto, ON, M5H 3M7, email: ecmcanada@cantor.com.
The Unit Offering is expected to close on or about March 22, 2021.
The Company’s at-the market equity offering program qualified under a supplement dated November 13, 2020 to the Base Shelf Prospectus (the “ATM Offering”) will terminate in connection with the Unit Offering and the Company will no longer offer or sell any common shares through the facilities of the Toronto Stock Exchange and/or NYSE American pursuant to such ATM Offering.
Source: Company Press Release