7. Mineral Properties

 

The Company’s mineral properties consist of the following:

 

 

 

 

United States

 

Lost Creek Property

 

The Company acquired certain Wyoming properties when Ur-Energy USA Inc. entered into the Membership Interest Purchase Agreement (“MIPA”) with New Frontiers Uranium, LLC in 2005. Under the terms of the MIPA, the Company purchased 100% of NFU Wyoming, LLC. Assets acquired in this transaction include the Lost Creek Project, other Wyoming properties and development databases. NFU Wyoming, LLC was acquired for aggregate consideration of $20 million plus interest. Since 2005, the Company has increased its holdings adjacent to the initial Lost Creek acquisition through staking additional claims and additional property purchases and leases.

 

There is a royalty on each of the State of Wyoming sections under lease at the Lost Creek, LC West and EN Projects, as required by law. Other royalties exist on certain mining claims at the LC South, LC East and EN Projects. There are no royalties on the mining claims in the LC North or LC West Projects.

 

In September 2013, after the Company commenced mineral extraction and production at the Lost Creek Project, it began amortizing the related mineral properties on a straight-line basis.

 

Pathfinder Mines Corporation

 

The Company acquired additional Wyoming properties when Ur-Energy USA Inc. closed a Share Purchase Agreement (“SPA”) with an AREVA Mining affiliate in December 2013. Under the terms of the SPA, the Company purchased Pathfinder Mines Corporation (“Pathfinder”) to acquire additional mineral properties. Assets acquired in this transaction include the Shirley Basin mine, portions of the Lucky Mc mine, machinery and equipment, vehicles, office equipment and development databases. Pathfinder was acquired for aggregate consideration of $6.7 million, a 5% production royalty under certain circumstances and the assumption of $5.7 million in estimated asset reclamation obligations. The purchase price allocation attributed $5.7 million to asset retirement obligations, $3.3 million to deferred tax liabilities, $15.3 million to mineral properties and the balance to the remaining assets and liabilities.  The royalty expired on June 30, 2016.

 

Other U.S. properties

 

The other U.S. properties include the acquisition cost of several potential mineralized properties including the Lost Soldier Project. The Company continues to maintain those properties through claim payments, lease payments, insurance and other holding costs in anticipation of future exploration efforts.

 

In June 2016, the Company decided to abandon its claims in the Hauber Project and wrote off $62 thousand being the carrying value of the investment in that project.

 

Impairment testing

 

The Company reviews the impairment indicators outlined in US GAAP guidance.  In 2017, the sole indication of possible impairment was the continuing weakness in industry-wide reported sales prices despite a slight increase in prices for the year. While this price has no immediate effect on the Company since it has sales contracts until 2021, a cash flow analyses for each of Lost Creek and Shirley Basin was performed. The mine life used was consistent with that reported in the respective NI 43-101 Preliminary Economic Assessment for each property. Cash flows were calculated using a sales price of $31 per pound which was the long-term quoted price in industry periodicals as of December 31, 2017.  Based on these undiscounted cash flow models, the assets will be recovered and no impairments were indicated for any of the respective properties. 

 

For other properties which have reported mineral resources supported by NI 43-101 Technical Reports, we applied the estimated market pricing to the mineral resource estimates as well as realization percentages which were taken from a previous valuation completed by a third party with respect to the Lost Creek Project in conjunction with obtaining our Wyoming bond loan.

 

Our remaining properties, which have no estimated mineral resource, continue to be carried at their acquisition costs.

 

The Company’s accounting policy is to expense development costs including, but not limited to, production wells, header houses, piping and power as we have no proven and probable reserves.