How did Canadian company U92 Energy Corp obtain permission to drill for uranium at Kurupung in Region Seven?
There was no known public notification of this project from the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission or the Environmental Protection Agency.
Moreover, uranium is one of those metallic elements that Guyana should be extremely careful about. Uranium can be enriched and used for energy generation but it can also be utilized for nuclear weapons.
Particularly since the discovery of oil here in 2015, the country should have a policy to govern exploration for elements such as uranium and rare earths. And this really should only be for national use and not commercial purposes by a junior miner whose intentions will not be subject to Guyanese law. The government must provide full information on this project and the decision-making process.
This development with U92 Energy also points to the role of US lobbyists and how they also become entwined in these deals. The Non-Executive Director of this company is Otto Reich, who was once the US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and Ambassador to Venezuela. Reich was part of a lobbying outfit, the Cormac Group, that had been hired by the PPP/C government in 2021. Prior to the hiring by the Government, the PPP had used this same firm for lobbying purposes. Otto Reich Associates was named a joint venture firm with the Cormac Group. Was this connection to Reich the pathway to U92 Energy gaining access to this Kurupung site? This uranium exploration is troubling and requires careful scrutiny. Hopefully Parliament can address this matter soon.
In the meanwhile, U92 Energy Corp is proceeding merrily along its path to gather financing for its operations here and leveraging its hold on the potential deposits here.
On Friday, the company announced in a press release that it has received TSX Venture Exchange approval and closed a binding Asset Purchase Agreement to acquire the complete historical technical and exploration dataset relating to the Kurupung Uranium Project in Guyana.
Pursuant to the Transaction, U92 said it has issued 1,030,927 common shares of the Company at a deemed price of CDN$0.485 per share to the arm’s-length vendor.
Adam Clode, Executive Chairman and CEO of U92, stated, “Securing ownership of exploration work completed over more than a decade at Kurupung is a pivotal milestone that materially strengthens the project’s technical foundation ahead of an updated mineral resource estimate and inaugural drill program. By completing the transaction on an all-share basis, U92 has enhanced the value of its asset while preserving capital for exploration.”
The company has cited over 129,723 metres of drilling and a historical indicated mineral resource of 10.6 million pounds, and an inferred mineral resource of 10.0 million pounds, at a cut-off grade of 0.03% (300ppm) U₃O₈. It says the mineral resource occurs in four deposits where mineralization remains open along strike and down plunge. There are eight additional targets where 14,000m of prior drilling intersected significant U₃O₈ grades that require further drilling for inclusion into the Company’s anticipated updated mineral resource estimate, U92 said.
The Company further said it is committed to “systematic exploration and disciplined capital allocation as it unlocks the full value of the Kurupung Project and positions itself as a leading uranium-focused exploration and development company in South America”.
Again, how was this deal approved here and by whom. The all-important Natural Resources Committee of Parliament is being chaired by the Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat. One hopes that the other members of the Committee can place this matter on the agenda of the committee and to perhaps summon U92 to provide information on exactly how it came to be exploring for uranium in Guyana and its intentions.
In January of 2014, after much questioning of the origins of its deal,
Muri Brasil Ventures Inc announced that it would no longer pursue its controversial Permission for Geographical and Geophysical Survey in the New River Triangle in southeastern Guyana for rare earths. This was seen as a positive result for the struggle for openness and accountability in governance. Such openness and accountability is sorely needed in relation to the uranium project.
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