They're under the stewardship of Greg Hall, Peter McIntyre, and Andrew Moorhouse, who has 10 years experience with uranium.
Our CEO Greg Hall was in charge of BHP's Olympic Dam since its inception in the 1980s. He was in charge from its prefeasibility studies stage (PFS) through to mine operations, becoming the biggest uranium producer in the world. He also was in charge of their long-term contracting with utilities. At one point he was the operations manager at ERA's just closed Ranger, which was another world leading uranium producer. Hall knows everyone in uranium, from competitors to end users.
Peter McIntyre was the managing director of Extract Resources (EXT) in the last uranium bull market that peaked in 2007. He took the company from a share price of 30c to $8.65 when it was bought out by the Chinese firm GNC.They're complemented by experts in ISR mining in SA as well as having two advisors in the US, as they're actively looking to acquire another strong asset in either the USA or Africa where PDN, DYL, and LOT have operations.There'd only be a handful of uranium explorers in the world with hands on expertise in running a uranium mine. Maybe less. It's worth emphasising that I'm referencing ''explorers'' here, not producers or developers. To have three experienced uranium men with an explorer is rare and indeed gold standard. Most will be lucky to have one. So when you say ''only'' two, it's in fact three and it's significant.
Let me share an excerpt from an article written in 2007 by Sean Brodrick at the (near) height of the last boom.
''Staff is at a premium. Rockhounds love what they do, but even they can't do it forever. And when the price of uranium cratered in the 1980s, staffs were decimated. About 20,000 engineers and geologists worked in the uranium sector in American companies during the last uranium boom. That number is about 400 now, too many of whom are close to retirement age. So if you can find a company with a fairly "deep bench" of uranium mining experts on its payroll, those guys are worth their weight in gold. One solution to the staffing shortage: mergers. If two companies each with three expert rockhounds merge, that company now has six experienced prospectors to work on the best of its projects.''
It's the same this time around. There are experienced producers and near-term developers, but how many explorers will have real hands on expertise running a uranium mine ?
This from Rick Rule in March 2017 when talking about the previous 2001-2007 bull market that followed a lengthy bear market post the 80's bull:
''The extremity of that bull market became amusing after a while because as a consequence of the bear market, there were probably only 10 or 15 exploration teams worldwide who were confident to own a uranium company. Yet at the top of the bull market boom, there were 500 companies that purported to be in the uranium business. That meant determining whether or not a company had an adequate management team was a simple function of dividing the number of teams available—15—by the number of applicants—500. Not a very promising outlook.''
I sense that Investors will soon be looking to invest with any company that utters the word uranium in their next announcement. Over the next year or two more and more junior explorers will start announcing their exciting new U plays. Most won't have anywhere near the expertise to be serious uranium companies with the hope of ever producing. But that doesn't mean they won't have fantastic share price appreciation, because all boats will rise on the same tide in this bull market. That said, I'm extremely comfortable parking my money in this particular explorer (AGE). Their credentials are second to none and they already have quality tenements in permit-friendly jurisdictions, which is very important.
AGE listed in 2011. They're a pure uranium play. They're not a gold or copper company jumping on the next big thing. Uranium needs incredible expertise. So does picking a penny stock.
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