New York Stock Exchange-listed company to absorb Toro Energy in $75m deal, acquiring Wiluna uranium project

The owner of the stalled Wiluna uranium project in the northern Goldfields has agreed to a $75 million deal that will see it become part of a New York Stock Exchange-listed company with assets across North America and Australia. Toro Energy informed the Australian Securities Exchange on Monday that it had entered into a scheme implementation deed with global uranium company IsoEnergy, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange as well as Wall Street. Shares in Toro jumped 12¢, or 36.9 per cent, in early trade to 44.5¢ at 10am. Toro said the acquisition of the Wiluna project would strengthen IsoEnergy’s development pipeline, with the company’s existing portfolio including past-producing US mines, the ultra-high-grade Hurricane deposit in Canada’s Athabasca Basin, and a diversified suite of development and exploration assets across Canada, the US and Australia. The West Perth-headquartered company said Toro shareholders would gain exposure to a larger, more diversified portfolio of high-quality uranium exploration, development, and near-term production assets in tier-one jurisdictions in an enlarged, liquid vehicle while retaining direct exposure to Wiluna and all other Toro assets. The combined company would have resources of 78.1 million pounds of triuranium octoxide — otherwise known as yellowcake — in the measured and indicated categories, and 34.6Mlb in the inferred category. Toro said the World Nuclear Association’s 2025 Fuel Report projected uranium demand to rise about 30 per cent by 2030 and to more than double by 2040, with a strengthened resource base and diversified jurisdictional exposure expected to position IsoEnergy to benefit from a rapidly tightening supply/demand outlook. IsoEnergy director and chief executive Phillip Williams said acquisition of the Wiluna uranium project strengthened the company’s portfolio with a large, previously permitted asset in a top-tier jurisdiction at a time when global nuclear demand was accelerating. “This transaction positions IsoEnergy to deliver meaningful scale, optionality, and sustained value creation for shareholders,” he said. “We look forward to welcoming the Toro team, who have done an admirable job stewarding the company and its projects through often challenging markets, to IsoEnergy and advancing the project together.” Toro executive chairman Richard Homsany said the transaction represented a material premium for Toro shareholders of 79.7 per cent to the company’s last traded price and 92.2 per cent to its 20-day volume-weighted average price. “It also provides Toro shareholders the opportunity to be part of a larger, leading uranium company listed on the TSX and NYSE,” he said. “Toro shareholders will have exposure to a diverse uranium portfolio that has strong growth potential and is located in favourable regulatory jurisdictions, and the ability to attract enhanced access to funding including for the Wiluna uranium project.” The WA Labor Government has a policy banning new uranium mining projects in the State, and Toro’s approvals for Wiluna, which were granted in 2016, lapsed in 2021 because “substantial commencement” was deemed not to have taken place. Nevertheless, it has been pushing on with work at the project and in May released a “more accurate” low-level study highlighting the “robust” economic potential of the Lake Maitland deposit. Mr Homsany said the new study used the recently completed, more accurate resource estimation and re-engineering of the proposed mining operations. “The result is a more accurate study that clearly demonstrates just how robust the potential economics of the proposed project are, with an uplift of $75m or 9 per cent to a base case of $908m in pre-tax net present value, and a significant reduction in the payback period to a very swift 18 months from the commencement of mining and processing,” he said. “As we have stated previously, the Lake Maitland deposit comprises a significant proportion of the Wiluna uranium project’s resources, so we cannot understate just how transformational the standalone Lake Maitland operation is on the potential economics of the entire Wiluna uranium project.” Toro updated the resource at Lake Maitland in September 2024 by 12 per cent to 29.6Mlb of contained triuranium octoxide with a reduction in average grade to 403 parts per million triuranium octoxide at a 100ppm cut-off grade. The study said Lake Maitland could produce 1.3Mlb annually of yellowcake across a 16.3-year mine life. The returns were based on a uranium price of US$85/lb — rival Canadian company Cameco estimates the spot price in September was US$82.63/lb. The only uranium project in WA with currently valid State approval is Deep Yellow’s Mulga Rock proposal 290km east-north-east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder but this is second in line to the $750m Tumas project in Namibia, where Deep Yellow this year delayed a financial investment decision as it waits for global prices to improve.