Cameco Acquires Yeelirrie Uranium Project in Western Australia for $430M

Cameco

announced Sunday that it has reached an agreement with BHP Billiton

to acquire the Yeelirrie uranium project in Western Australia for $430 million. Yeelirrie is a near-surface calcrete-style deposit, amenable to open pit mining techniques. Yeelirrie is one of Australia's largest undeveloped uranium deposits and is located about 650 kilometres northeast of Perth and about 750 kilometres south of Cameco's Kintyre exploration project. "Yeelirrie represents an attractive deposit that fi ts well with Cameco's vision and corporate strategy," said Cameco's president and CEO Tim Gitz el. "We are pleased to add this promising deposit to our suite of uranium assets and look forward to advancing this property through our process for assessing development projects." Cameco expects the transaction to close by the end of 2012, subject to the receipt of approvals from the government of Western Australia and the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board. Upon closing, stamp tax duty of about $22 million (US) will be payable by Cameco to the government of Western Australia.