Rose Petroleum sells stake in uranium project for $1.5m

2nd Jan 2015 08:09

US oil & gas explorer Rose Petroleum has agreed to sell its 50% stake in the Wate breccia pipe uranium project to EFR Arizona Strip, a subsidiary of Energy Fuels Inc, for $1.5m.Rose said its subsidiary Vane Minerals had signed a purchase and sale deal to sell its half of the Wate project, which is owned and operated by Wate Mining Company, owned jointly by Vane and Uranium One Americas. Vane manages Wate.The uranium deposit was initially discovered in the 1980s in a drilling campaign carried out by Rocky Mountain Energy, a subsidiary of Union Pacific Resources and relinquished during a period of depressed uranium prices.Vane and U1 restarted the scheme in 2009, whereby further drilling was conducted and the NI 43-101 resource was subsequently established by Wate.Chief executive Matthew Idiens said: "We are pleased to announce the signing of the SPA with Energy Fuels, thereby moving forward with our intent to divest our uranium assets, as previously announced, and concentrate on our oil and gas projects which continue to gain momentum as well as our base and precious metals projects."The proceeds of the sale will be utilised in both the mining and oil & gas divisions, on the mining side, specifically pushing forward the porphyry exploration programme in Mexico."Shares in Rose gained 0.12p or nearly 6% to 2.22p at 08:15 in London.