4 November 2024
Appointment of Country
Manager - Mauritania
|
Aura Energy Limited (ASX: AEE, AIM:
AURA) ('Aura' or the 'Company') is delighted to announce the
appointment of Mr Mohamed El
Moctar Mohamed El Hacene to the newly established role of
Country Manager Mauritania.
Mr.
Hacene is a highly qualified
Mauritanian national with extensive experience in mining and
international affairs. He
previously served as Mauritania's Minister of Petroleum and Mines
from 2007 to 2008, during which time uranium was first
discovered at Tiris by Aura.
Mr Hacene has joined Aura as Country
Manager and Director General of Tiris Ressources SA, Aura's 85%
owned Mauritanian subsidiary and holder of the Tiris Uranium
Project. He commenced at Aura on the 1 November 2024 after ten
years with the United Nations as Director, Economic Development and
Integration Division, Economic and Social Commission for Western
Asia ('ESCWA') based in Lebanon.
From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Hacene served
as General Manager of External Relations for Rio Tinto's Simandou
iron ore project in Guinea. He has also provided consultancy to
various mining companies in Mauritania, including Woodside, Société
Nationale Industrielle et Minière, Paladin Energy, and General
Gold, as well as to the World Bank and the African Development
Bank.
Mr. Hacene holds a Bachelor of Arts
from the École Normale Supérieure in Mauritania, a Master of
Science in Mineral Economics from the WA School of Mines at Curtin
University in Australia, and he began a Ph.D. in Political Science
at Université de Grenoble in France.
Aura Energy Managing Director and CEO, Andrew Grove
said:
"We are very pleased to welcome Moctar to the Aura Energy
team.
Moctar's experience is outstanding and his passion for the
Tiris Uranium Project and developing the mining industry in
Mauritania is formidable. Both Aura and Mauritania will benefit
significantly from his return to Mauritania after a stellar
international career.
Moctar is a key appointment in driving the development of the
Tiris Uranium Project into Mauritania's first uranium
mine.
The appointment of Moctar as Country Manger is another
important milestone as Aura continues to rapidly progress the Tiris
development to realise the significant inherent value in the
Project as demonstrated in the recent Production Target update
study[1] (US$499M NPV8, 2.25-year payback
period and 39% IRR) and the significant upside and
exploration potential of the area, part of which was demonstrated
by recent 55% increase in Mineral
Resources to 91.3Mlbs U3O8[2]."
ENDS
Aura Energy Ltd has approved this
announcement.
This Announcement contains inside
information for the purposes of the UK version of the market abuse
regulation (EU No. 596/2014) as it forms part of United Kingdom
domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018
('UK MAR').
For
further information, please contact:
Andrew Grove
Managing Director and CEO
Aura Energy Limited
agrove@auraee.com
+61 414 011 383
|
Paul
Ryan
Sodali & Co
Investor & Media
Relations
paul.ryan@sodali.com
+61 409 296 511
|
SP
Angel Corporate Finance LLP
Nominated Advisor and
Broker
David Hignell
Adam Cowl
Devik Mehta
Grant Barker
+44 203 470 0470
|
About Aura Energy (ASX: AEE, AIM:
AURA)
Aura Energy is an Australian-based
mineral company with major uranium and polymetallic projects in
Africa and Europe.
The Company is focused on developing
a uranium mine at the Tiris Uranium Project, a major greenfield
uranium discovery in Mauritania. 2024 FEED Study[3] and Updated Production Target[4] demonstrated Tiris to be a near-term low-cost 2Mlbs
U3O8 pa future uranium mine with a 25-year
mine life with excellent economics and optionality to expand to
accommodate future resource growth.
Aura plans to transition from a
uranium explorer to a uranium producer to capitalise on the rapidly
growing demand for nuclear power as the world shifts towards a
decarbonised energy sector.
Beyond the Tiris Project, Aura owns
100% of the Häggån Project in Sweden. Häggån contains a
global-scale 2.5Bt vanadium, sulphate of potash ("SOP")[5] and uranium[6] resource.
Utilising only 3% of the resource, a 2023 Scoping Study[7] outlined a 17-year mine life based on mining
3.5Mtpa.
Disclaimer Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements
This ASX announcement (Announcement)
contains various forward-looking statements. All statements other
than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to uncertainties
in that they may be affected by a variety of known and unknown
risks, variables and factors which could cause actual values or
results, performance or achievements to differ materially
from the expectations described in such forward-looking
statements. The Company does not give any assurance or
guarantee that the anticipated results, performance or
achievements expressed or implied in those forward-looking
statements will be achieved.
The Company has concluded that it
has a reasonable basis for providing the forward-looking statements
and production targets included in this announcement and that
material assumptions remain unchanged. The detailed reasons for
this conclusion are outlined throughout this announcement, and in
the ASX Releases, "Scoping Study Confirms Scale and Optionality of
Häggån", 5 September 2023; "Aura's Tiris FEED Study returns
Excellent Economics" 28 February 2024; "Tiris Uranium Project
Enhanced Definitive Feasibility Study", 29 March 2023 and "Updated
Production Target improves economics at Tiris Uranium Project" 11
September 2024.
ASX and JORC Related
Disclosures
Mineral Resources
The information on Mineral Resources
for the Tiris Uranium Project in this report is extracted from the
ASX release on 12 June 2024 titled "Aura increases Tiris Mineral
Resources by 55% to 91.3Mlbs".
The information on Mineral Resources for the
Tiris Uranium Project in this report is extracted from the ASX
release on 10 October 2019 titled "Häggån Battery Metal Project
Resource Upgrade Estimate Successfully Completed". These reports
can be viewed at https://auraenergy.com.au/investor-centre/asx-announcements.
The company confirms that it is not
aware of any new information or data that materially affects the
information included in the original market announcement and, in
the case of estimates of Mineral Resources or Ore Reserves, that
all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the
estimates in the relevant market announcement continue to apply and
have not materially changed. The company confirms that the form and
context in which the Competent Person's findings are presented have
not been materially modified from the original market
announcement.'
Production Targets
The information on Production
Targets for the Tiris Uranium Project in this report is extracted
from the ASX release on 11 Sept 2024 titled "Updated Production
Target Improves Economics at Tiris". This report can
be viewed at https://auraenergy.com.au/investor-centre/asx-announcements.
The company confirms that it is not
aware of any new information or data that materially affects the
information included in the original market announcement and that
all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the
estimates in the relevant market announcement continue to apply and
have not materially changed.