Interview mit Glen Catchpole
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Uranerz acquires major interest in sizeable wyoming holdings
'Confident We Will Be Able to Identify a Significant Amount of Uranium'
An Interview with Glenn Catchpole, CEO of Uranerz Energy Corporation
StockInterview.com interviewed Glenn Catchpole, chief executive officer of Uranerz Energy Corporation (AMEX: URZ) shortly before the NAMMCO acquisition closed. The land package addition has tripled the land area under the control of Uranerz Energy in the Powder River Basin. Mr. Catchpole shared with us his excitement on this new acquisition and why he believes the new property addition could be quite promising. Mr. Catchpole also provided us with a look at his previous work experience as well as details on production plans, drill results and general updates on Uranerz operations.
Glenn Catchpole, CEO of Uranerz Energy Corporation
StockInterview:
How would you describe the current status of Uranerz Energy Corporation?
Glenn Catchpole:
From the very beginning of activating this company and starting this venture, our business model has been to become a producer of natural uranium using the in-situ recovery mining method. The reason we chose that model is because our team has experience doing just that, in terms of permitting, developing, mining and producing natural uranium using in-situ recovery. So that has been our model since day one, and it has driven our acquisition efforts to locate properties that we call quality properties that in our opinion have a good chance of being economically mined using the in-situ recovery method. I am very pleased with the success we’ve had so far in obtaining and advancing uranium properties that we feel have good potential. Uranerz has acquired a considerable land position in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming in addition to having properties in the area of the Athabasca Basin and also in Mongolia. We certainly are going to continue our acquisition efforts but as to where we are today, we are very pleased with our progress.
StockInterview:
So you are happy with your two primary ore properties, the Hank and Nichols Ranch?
Glenn Catchpole:
As a starting point, yes. We feel that those are going to be able to be produced and provide us with a good return on our investment and they represent just the start of our plans for the future in terms of developing production in the Pumpkin Buttes uranium district of Wyoming.
Uranerz Energy believes it has what it takes to become a successful producer of uranium. They have assembled experienced professionals, a large land package in uranium producing regions, and are progressing on the road to permits for their properties.
StockInterview:
In Uranerz Energy Corporation materials, there is an ISR triangle depicted, which includes people, properties and permits. How does Uranerz measure up in these categories?
Glenn Catchpole:
Well in reference to that ISR triangle, on the bottom of it is the people category. We feel that having an experienced uranium staff is one of our main strengths. We have a very experienced, professional group in our organization. When I say experienced, it’s not just in uranium but specifically in the production of uranium using the low-cost in-situ recovery mining method. I have spent my entire thirty-one year professional career in uranium development and production using this particular mining method. Our chief operating officer, George Hartman, likewise has spent most of his professional career in the in-situ recovery mining business and some eighteen years of that specific to uranium. Our senior geologist responsible for exploration has extensive experience in Wyoming, in sandstone geology and with this core team, we feel we can successfully put, for instance, the Hank and Nichols Ranch properties into production efficiently and make them profitable operations. As for the environmental permitting of uranium projects, I started out my career on that side of the business. I actually worked for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, DEQ, as their senior hydrologist and the person who reviewed the in-situ recovery permit applications back in the 1975-1977 timeframe. From there I went into private industry, and my first job was to get the commercial permits for a project out in the Red Desert of Wyoming, which we did, and later on with the old Uranerz, I was directly involved in the commercial permitting of two more projects, this time in the Powder River Basin. So, in the earlier days in my career, I spent a considerable amount of time on the permitting side and with that background, we are now training the next generation of professionals in our organization including our permitting manager Mike Thomas. We believe that in Wyoming we have a very good handle on the permitting process as our team has permitted three commercial ISR uranium projects in the state.
StockInterview:
Having worked on the flip side of the coin, if you will, do you believe it has given you more of a unique perspective beneficial to your current work?
Glenn Catchpole:
Probably to some degree, I might have a better appreciation for what the regulatory folks are looking for in terms of the level of detail, but that’s not something that somebody else couldn’t, in this business, catch up with, but I do think it helps to some degree. Also, some of my colleagues back when I was working for the Wyoming DEQ, are still working for that agency and in fact, the DEQ project manager for the Uranerz permitting in the Powder River Basin is a person that I worked with, some thirty years ago. We have thus built up a good rapport with those folks and that should help us too.
StockInterview:
Are some of the regulations that you now have to follow some that you had helped put into law, into practice?
Glenn Catchpole:
While I was working at the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, we developed a guideline relative to water quality sampling and analysis, and determining which chemical species should be part of the list for analyzing. I worked on that and was part of that effort and that guideline, although it has been revised several times since I left the department, is still in use today.
The Nichols Ranch property has a defined roll-front, and drill results have confirmed the validity of the deposit.
StockInterview:
The most advanced property in the Uranerz portfolio seems to be the Nichols Ranch property, with the roll-front identified. How excited are you about this property and what can you tell us about the recent drill results?
Glenn Catchpole:
That property, just to give a little history on it, was one that we acquired from a third party by the name of Excalibur Industries. As part of that acquisition, it included historical data, such as drill logs and lithologic logs, and some reports and maps with that information. From the analysis that we did, Uranerz felt very positive about that project, both in terms of the quality, or the grade of the ore and the thickness, the hydrology, everything seemed to fit very well. We then did additional drilling and we acquired additional private mineral land nearby, adjacent to it, and from the results of that drilling which were on what is called the nose of the roll-front, we became even more excited about it. We had some very good results from drilling. One hole in fact, had 11 feet of uranium at a grade of .64 % which is very good in Wyoming for solution mining. So, based on both the historic drilling and the subsequent drilling and exploration that we performed on that property, we feel very good about it and very confident that it’s going to make a good ISR mine.
StockInterview:
That data that you quoted, that’s actually in the nose that you are talking about?
Glenn Catchpole:
Most of that was in the nose, not all of it.
StockInterview:
What can you tell us about the Hank property and the progress of the delineation of the deposit?
Glenn Catchpole:
The Hank property, just like the Nichols property, was one we acquired from that same third party, and it also included the historic database. From that database, plus additional drilling that we’ve completed, we feel comfortable that it will also make a good ISR uranium mine. That’s why we’ve started the permitting effort on it. The additional drilling, while not as rewarding as Nichols Ranch, because we were not in the nose of the ore body, is still very encouraging.
StockInterview:
Where are you planning on processing the ore?
Glenn Catchpole:
We plan to construct our main processing facility at the Nichols Ranch site, and that processing facility will include the ion-exchange circuit, elution and precipitation circuits and a drying and packaging circuit, so we will be able to produce final product at the Nichols Ranch facility. The Hank facility will be constructed as a satellite plant, consisting of an ion-exchange circuit, and we will be trucking the resin loaded with uranium from the Hank property over to Nichols Ranch and that’s a distance of about six miles.
Uranerz Energy is progressing toward becoming a producer of uranium.
StockInterview:
When we first met you had discussed your previous ISR experiences and talked about being frugal in the building of a processing facility, or implementing the Chevrolet version instead of the Cadillac version. Is this still your plan and what will this mean for Uranerz investors?
Glenn Catchpole:
Our plan is to build a very efficient, state-of-the-art processing facility, but we will do it in the most economic way possible and still have very safe and environmentally friendly facilities, but there won’t be a lot of fluff or bells and whistles that really aren’t needed to produce the final product. We took this approach on a commercial ISR uranium mine we built in Wyoming the early 1980s and probably saved the joint venture about 30 to 40% in capital costs. We are in the process of preparing our internal economic assessment on Hank-Nichols Ranch production facilities and that should be completed early this year. At that point we will have a good handle on what those capital costs are going to be, but they should be very reasonable based on the design that we are planning to use.
StockInterview:
Recently announced as well was the completion of the acquisition of the interest in land held by NAMMCO. Can you briefly explain who is NAMMCO and why they have assembled the land position that they currently have?
Glenn Catchpole:
NAMMCO is a private company based in Casper, Wyoming that utilized the services of a very experienced uranium geologist by the name of Steve Payne to go out and put together a land package in the Powder River Basin. Based on that individual’s experience and based on research that he performed, we believe they put together an excellent land package with properties located very close to our holdings in the Powder River Basin, in some cases right adjacent to ours. They did not have the expertise to mine the properties themselves, so they began to look for possible partners or a company to purchase the properties from them, and they had a number of companies interested. In the end, we were able to acquire an 81% interest while they retain a 19% working interest. The NAMMCO project will be operated as a joint venture, with Uranerz as the operator.
Uranerz Energy has nearly tripled its land holdings in the Powder River Basin with its recent acquisition of an 81% interest in land held by NAMMCO, shown above in orange. Uranerz's previous holdings are shown in blue, with Cameco's properties in red and Areva's properties in green.
StockInterview:
What is the scale of the NAMMCO land package?
Glenn Catchpole:
The land package they put together covers some plus or minus 77,000 acres, so it is a big package. The geologist who put it together identified numerous oxidation reduction fronts on the land. Obviously not all the land is going to contain uranium, but we are confident that at the end of the day we will be able to identify a significant amount of uranium.
StockInterview:
Can you explain what Steve Payne was referring to by the stacked roll-front deposits and how that differs from a basic roll-front?
Glenn Catchpole:
A stacked roll-front deposit is very typical in Wyoming. It just simply means that, in these Wyoming deposits, there are layers of sand, not just one big massive sand, but a number of less thick sands, and it might be separated by some sort of confining layer like a shale or a mudstone unit, and you can have a roll-front in each or several of these sands. When that happens in the same area, these are called stacked fronts, or stacked roll-fronts and it’s not uncommon in Wyoming. If the quality of the mineralization in each front meets the test for being economically recovered, the most common way is to mine each sand, or each roll-front, separately, from the most deep to shallowest.
StockInterview:
What has captured your interest in the NAMMCO holdings?
Glenn Catchpole:
First and foremost, they’re in an area where historically there has been a lot of drilling in the past and where there has been previous uranium mineralization located. So, it’s the right neighborhood. That’s one thing. Secondly, is the fact that Mr. Payne has identified these oxidation-reduction fronts when he put together the NAMMCO land package. Generally speaking, if you’re going to find uranium in a sandstone hosted environment, it’s going to be along these oxidation reduction fronts, and so that’s the other factor that has encouraged us to pursue this deal. |
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