First Uranium raises $107 million

Adding $107 million to its coffers will allow First Uranium (FIU-T, FUM-J) to speed up construction of the pressure leach portion of its Mine Waste Solutions tailings recovery project in South Africa.

The company may also be on the look out for new projects to add to its portfolio.

First Uranium announced a bought-deal financing today, led by Scotia Capital. The underwriters have agreed to buy 15.25 million First Uranium shares at $7 each for a total of $106.75 million. The offering is expected to close by June 1.

At the Mine Waste Solutions project, located 160 km from Johannesburg, there are 14 tailings deposits from three gold and uranium mines that operated for 50 years. Right now, the company is mining the Buffelsfontein No. 2 tailings dam.

In total, the tailings deposits has reserves of 325.4 million tonnes grading 0.28 gram gold per tonne and 0.08 kg U3O8 per tonne for 2.9 million oz. gold and 54.8 million lbs. uranium. The company expects to produce 141,000 oz. gold per year and 1.4 million lbs. uranium, though in the most recent quarter, the company processed 1.8 million tonnes of ore, producing 12,000 oz. gold.

Measured and indicated resource of 335.1 million tonnes grading 0.27 gram gold per tonne and 0.07 kg U3O8 per tonne for 2.9 million oz. gold and 55.8 million lbs. uranium, and inferred resources totalling of 200,000 oz. gold and 4.6 million lbs. uranium.

First Uranium also operates the Ezulwini gold-uranium mine, located 40 km from Johannesburg, which was in production from the 1960s until 2001. In that time, it produced about 14 million lbs of uranium and 12 million oz. gold. The company acquired the mine in 2006, and the company is simultaneously stockpiling ore, working on shaft rehabilitation and mine development. Measured and indicated resources are 14 million tonnes grading 6.14 grams gold per tonne for 2.8 million oz. gold and about 4.4 million tonnes grading 0.74% U3O8 for 7.1 million lbs U3O8.

First Uranium shares fell nearly 8% today or 59¢ to $6.59 apiece on a trading volume of 961,000 shares.