Could you give us some background on ISO Energy?

ISO Energy is focused in the Eastern Athabasca of Saskatchewan, the preeminent destination for uranium exploration. Not only are the deposits here the highest grade in the world, it is located in the number one mining jurisdiction globally. We have done two campaigns of drilling so far on our properties and we have another campaign planned for this winter. Whilst this is going on, we are hoping to piece together a strong collection of properties in the Eastern Athabasca.

Started back in 2012, ISO Energy was spun out from NexGen energy following the acquisition of the Radio property, which now sits within the ISO portfolio. We then started to piece together a stronger presence in the Athabasca region. We were lucky to have some early success with the discovery of the Arrow zone, which has become a world class deposit. When we first started the company, we had a capitalization of about C$5 million; we are now a billion-dollar company, and growing all the time. NexGen remains our major shareholder. We listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in September of last year, and we raised C$12 million at that time.

How do you expect the uranium market to pan out?

It has been a few difficult years for the sector. The importance of Cameco closing McCarthur River cannot be overstated. Uranium has been slow to take off, but I think prices will rebound very strongly from here. Cameco has stated that it will be buying some product off the spot market, which should generate some hedge fund interest. Although this has not been widely discussed so far, all the fundamentals are there. During the last uranium boom in 2007, we saw hedge funds in the United States buying on the spot market, which had a dramatic impact on price. We are set for that again; there are a number of funds in the United States looking to buy in the spot market. One of our bolder predictions is that this could happen again.  It would be very straightforward for one of them to front run Cameco’s purchasing of spot product, given that they have said that they are going to do it. We would not be surprised if that drives prices up very high at some point over the next twelve months.

One of the challenges for explorers, developers and miners, is that a solid demand outlook is rare. In the case of uranium, demand seems to be growing at about 2% a year. Last year, more reactors were commissioned worldwide than have ever been before, so demand is increasing positively. However, for the last year, for every single mine in the world, the spot price has been sitting below the cost of production. This is highly unusual. Most companies sell on long-term contracts, but most of these are expiring soon. Then all of the mines will be exposed to the spot price. We will likely see more cuts in supply, which needs to happen because the market is oversupplied. We are not far off being back in balance; a few more cuts and we will be in under-supply again, and prices will rise.

What are the current timelines for ISO Energy?

We will continue to consolidate our property portfolio through staking and doing deals.

The main focus is getting in and drilling our Geiger property, which we acquired off Cameco, Areva and JCU a couple of months ago. It looks to be a fantastic project. As far as we are concerned, there is a potential discovery already made there, so we have now got to get in and drill around that. We have a budget in place for January 2018. We have done a number of geophysical surveys and base level exploration work on our other properties. Thorburn Lake, for example, exemplifies the potential of this part of the world; it is 6km away from Cigar Lake, one of the world’s great uranium mines. We will therefore be drilling right up next to the boundary there, probably midway through next year.

If we make a discovery, it will come down to moving the project as quickly as we can through the development permitting phase, through the studies and on into production over the next five to ten years.

Do you have a final message about the company?

We have got a very solid plan for exploring and developing our properties in the eastern Athabasca basin. While there are inherent risks involved with mining exploration, our management of these risks is second to none. We are well funded for the next 12 months; we have got C$1.2 million in flow-through and a little over C$3 million in hard dollars. Nevertheless, we continue to look to raise capital to keep drilling projects going and to advance towards a discovery as quickly as we can.