Listed (TSX:LAM; ASX:LAM)
/THIS NEWS RELEASE IS INTENDED FOR DISTRIBUTION IN CANADA ONLY AND IS NOT INTENDED FOR
DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES
NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE
UNITED STATES./
TORONTO, March 27, 2020 /CNW/ - Laramide
Resources Ltd. ("Laramide" or the "Company") is
pleased to announce that the Company and its lenders, Extract
Capital Master Fund Ltd. and Extract Lending LLC (together, the
"Lenders"), with Extract Advisors LLC acting as agent for
and on behalf of the Lenders (the "Agent"), completed an
amendment (the "Amendment") to the existing term loan made
by the Lenders in favour of Laramide Resources (USA) Ltd. (the "Term Loan"), which
includes, among other things, (i) an extension of the maturity date
of the Term Loan from December 29,
2021 to March 31, 2023 and
(ii) the outstanding amounts be convertible into common shares of
the Company at a price of C$0.40 per
common share.
Pursuant to the Amendment, the Company paid an amendment fee of
C$50,000 to the Agent and issued an
aggregate of 300,000 common share purchase warrants to the Lenders
with an exercise price of C$0.60,
each of which is exercisable for one (1) common share of the
Company until March 25, 2022.
The Company further highlights the recent decision of the
Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) which provides temporary
blanket relief (Temporary Relief) to market participants in
connection with the filing of certain continuous disclosure and
other documents due before June 1,
2020. This Temporary Relief is a response by the CSA to
recent COVID-19 developments which have impacted businesses
worldwide as companies try to rapidly adjust to new (hopefully
temporary) operational protocols mandated by virtually every
western government. These include the governments of Canada, Australia, and the
United States where Laramide has either project assets
and/or offices. While the Company currently expects little material
impact from COVID-19 on its business or business prospects in 2020,
it has elected to avail itself of this disclosure relief and now
anticipates it will file its Annual 2019 Financial Statements and
related disclosures (MD&A and AIF) in the latter half of
April 2020. It expects no delay to
the First Quarter 2020 filings (due before May 15, 2020) and also expects to hold its Annual
and Special Meeting of Shareholders as previously planned in the
second quarter of 2020. This meeting is now scheduled to be
held in Toronto on June 16, 2020.
In regards to recent macro developments as they pertain to
Laramide's prospects and outlook for uranium developers in general,
President and CEO Marc Henderson had
the following comments: " A little more than a month ago, the most
important development on the horizon for the uranium sector
appeared to be the positive action about to be taken by the US
government to address the survival and revitalization of domestic
nuclear fuel production, of which uranium production is the
critical first step. US President Trump's "Budget for America's
Future", which was announced on February 10,
2020, included a 10-year, $150M per year program ($1.5 billion total), to purchase U.S. mined
uranium for a strategic national Uranium Reserve. Other pro-active
regulatory and other administrative efforts were expected to
follow, and to be directed at domestic production and near
production assets.
With our large US domiciled resource in late stage development
projects like Churchrock, La Sal,
and La Jara Mesa, Laramide stood to be a beneficiary of these
actions if they eventuated but the emergence of the COVID-19
pandemic now overshadows everything and will likely (and rightly)
dominate US domestic policy considerations, both social and
economic, for some time to come.
The business of nuclear power, in which uranium companies play a
critical role, may paradoxically be either unaffected by the
COVID-19 issue or perhaps even be strengthened by it. The principal
reasons for this are twofold: firstly, nuclear generation is almost
always the cornerstone baseload component of nations where nuclear
energy is produced; consequently, when electricity demand contracts
(as is doing now), variable energy sources like coal, natural gas
and even renewables are likely to be the first sources reduced or
curtailed. This makes nuclear power (and indirectly uranium) one of
the few areas of the economy that are essentially non GDP
correlated – at least in the short to medium term.
Secondly, and this feeds off the undiminished near term demand
picture for uranium noted above, is that the supply side of uranium
has been in a primary deficit position for many years with
utilities relying on inventories and other above ground supply to
balance the market. This is clearly not a sustainable long-term
business model to power the world's nuclear reactor fleet, with
current prices nowhere near sufficient to sustain existing
producers, let alone incentivize new projects like those owned by
Laramide. All market participants understood this
dynamic could not last but after a grinding nine year bear market,
turnaround predictions (and predictors) have been highly devalued
and many supposed market catalysts have come and gone.
Enter COVID-19, however, which has now this week caused the
world's largest uranium mine – Cigar Lake in Saskatchewan – to come offline and, if others
were to follow suit, the recent complacency of utility fuel buyers
with respect to security of supply is likely to be tested. We
believe uranium equity valuations – which have fallen
in line with the general decline of almost all equities in
March 2020 – do not
reflect the prospect that a meaningful industry recovery
could finally begin in 2020."
To learn more about Laramide, please visit the Company's website
at www.laramide.com.
About Laramide Resources:
Laramide is a Canadian-based company with diversified uranium
assets strategically positioned in the
United States and Australia
that have been chosen for their low-cost production potential.
Laramide's recently acquired Church
Rock and Crownpoint
properties form a leading In-Situ Recovery (ISR) division that
benefits from significant mineral resources and near-term
development potential. Additional U.S. assets include La Jara Mesa
in Grants, New Mexico, and
La Sal in the Lisbon Valley
district of Utah. The Company's
Australian advanced stage Westmoreland is one of the largest uranium
projects currently held by a junior mining company. Laramide is
listed on the TSX: LAM and ASX: LAM.
Forward-looking Statements and Cautionary Language
This News Release contains forward looking statements which are
subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause
actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected
in the forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend to
update this information and disclaims any legal liability to the
contrary.
SOURCE Laramide Resources Ltd.