Peninsula Energy Limited (PEN:ASX) has launched a fully underwritten $106m placement and ANREO that will see it fully funded to restart operations at the Lance uranium project in Wyoming.

The Lance uranium project has one of the largest resources of uranium in the US. Peninsula expects to commence first production on late 2024 and the funds will see Peninsula through construction and commissioning to cash flow break even, expected in May 2025.

Congratulations to Wayne Heili, John Harrison, David Coyne, Mark Wheatley, Harrison Barker, Brian Booth, Willie Bezuidenhout and all the team at Peninsula on everything you’ve achieved over the last few years. Shaw and Partners is delighted to be playing our part in assisting the re-start of uranium production at Lance.

The placement and ANREO is fully underwritten by Shaw and Partners. Shaw and Partners also acted as Corporate Adviser to Peninsula in relation to the equity raising. The placement has been oversubscribed by a broad range of international and domestic investors.

The capital raising comes the same week, President Joe Biden has signed into law an Act to ban the import of Russian sourced enriched uranium into the US. The bill will ban imports of enriched uranium effective 90 days from 14 May.

The passage of this bill also triggers the release of US$2.7b in funding in the Nuclear Fuel Security Act which is likely to be used to invest in domestic US uranium production, US enrichment capacity and strategic uranium reserves.

The US is serious about banning Russian uranium and developing its own nuclear enrichment industry. Peninsula Energy Limited (PEN:ASX) is restarting operations at the Lance uranium project in Wyoming and one of the few sources of US uranium production. The passage of the bill saw some very interesting comments in the US Senate by John Barrasso, Senator for Wyoming, the introducer of the Bill to ban Russian uranium.

“…Russia’s choke hold on America's uranium supply is coming to an end.… America is finally starting to take back our nuclear energy security as well as our energy future.”

US utility companies have had 2.5 years to prepare for this transition and now the ban has passed into law it allows the Department of Energy to spend up to $2.72 billion to support domestic production of LEU and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), which is a more concentrated fuel intended for use in prospective advanced reactors.