Westwater Announces Acceptance of Its Request for Arbitration
January 02 2019 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
The International Centre for the Settlement of
Investment Disputes registers Westwater’s case against the Republic
of Turkey
Westwater Resources, Inc. (“Westwater,” or the “Company”)
(Nasdaq: WWR), an energy materials development company, today
announced that the International Centre for Settlement of
Investment Disputes (ICSID) has registered its Request for
Arbitration. The registration is the next step in Westwater seeking
compensation from the Republic of Turkey. At issue is Turkey’s
illegal taking of Westwater’s Temrezli and Şefaatli uranium
projects in June 2018. These projects were owned by Westwater’s
Turkish subsidiary Adur Madencilik Limited Sirketi (“Adur”).
Christopher M. Jones, President and CEO of Westwater Resources,
stated: “This initiates the process of constructing an
international tribunal that allows Westwater to bring the full
force of law to seek recovery of the Company’s investment in
Temrezli and Şefaatli. We are pleased that ICSID has acted quickly
to accept our Request for Arbitration.”
To date, Adur and its predecessors have invested substantially
in these two projects, using its technical expertise and carrying
out extensive drilling, testing and studies to move the projects
towards production. Having successfully completed the exploration
stage in 2013-2014, Adur was granted a number of operating licenses
by the Turkish government to develop the Temrezli mine. As a direct
result of Adur’s efforts, Temrezli is the most advanced uranium
project in Turkey. Experts have estimated that the mine will
generate revenues of up to USD 644 million over its life, netting
Westwater a return on its investment of USD 267 million as
described in the Prefeasibility Study completed for the Temrezli
project in 2014.
In June 2018, the Turkish government cancelled all of Adur's
exploration and operating licenses with retroactive effect,
rendering Westwater's investment in Adur effectively worthless.
Incredibly, the Turkish government sought to justify its actions on
the basis that the licenses – which had been variously issued,
renewed and overseen by the Turkish government for more than a
decade – had been issued by mistake. Turkey now asserts that it has
a governmental monopoly over all uranium mining activities in
Turkey, in violation of Westwater’s rights under Turkish and
international law, including the Treaty between the United States
of America and the Republic of Turkey concerning the Reciprocal
Encouragement and Protection of Investments (“Treaty”). Westwater
is bringing this claim under the Treaty to enforce its right to
full reparation for the damage caused by Turkey's illegal acts.
About Westwater Resources
WWR is focused on developing energy-related materials. The
Company’s battery-materials projects include the Coosa Graphite
Project – the most advanced natural flake graphite project in the
contiguous United States – and the associated Coosa Graphite Mine
located across 41,900 acres (~17,000 hectares) in east-central
Alabama. In addition, the Company maintains lithium mineral
properties in three prospective lithium brine basins in Nevada and
Utah. Westwater’s uranium projects are located in Texas and New
Mexico. In Texas, the Company has two licensed and currently idled
uranium processing facilities and approximately 11,000 acres
(~4,400 hectares) of prospective in-situ recovery uranium projects.
In New Mexico, the Company controls mineral rights encompassing
approximately 188,700 acres (~76,000 hectares) in the prolific
Grants Mineral Belt, which is one of the largest concentrations of
sandstone-hosted uranium deposits in the world. Incorporated in
1977 as Uranium Resources, Inc., Westwater also owns an extensive
uranium information database of historic drill hole logs, assay
certificates, maps and technical reports for the western United
States. For more information, visit www.westwaterresources.net.
Cautionary Statement
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and
assumptions and are identified by words such as “expects,”
“estimates,” “projects,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” and
other similar words. All statements addressing events or
developments that WWR expects or anticipates will occur in the
future, including but not limited to statements relating to the
Request for Arbitration and timing and outcome thereof, are
forward-looking statements. Because they are forward-looking, they
should be evaluated in light of important risk factors and
uncertainties. These risk factors and uncertainties include, but
are not limited to, (a) the Company’s ability to successfully
integrate Alabama Graphite Corporation’s business into its own, and
the risk that additional analysis of the Coosa Graphite Project may
result in revisions to the findings of WWR’s initial optimization
study; (b) the Company’s ability to raise additional capital in the
future; (c) spot price and long-term contract price of graphite,
lithium, vanadium and uranium; (d) risks associated with our
domestic operations; (e) operating conditions at the Company’s
projects; (f) government and tribal regulation of the graphite
industry, the lithium industry, the vanadium industry, the uranium
industry, and the power industry; (g) world-wide graphite, lithium,
vanadium and uranium supply and demand, including the supply and
demand for lithium-based batteries; (h) maintaining sufficient
financial assurance in the form of sufficiently collateralized
surety instruments; (i) unanticipated geological, processing,
regulatory and legal or other problems the Company may encounter in
the jurisdictions where the Company operates or intends to operate,
including in Alabama, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada; (j) the
ability of the Company to enter into and successfully close
acquisitions or other material transactions; (k) the results of the
Company’s lithium brine exploration activities at the Columbus
Basin, Railroad Valley, and Sal Rica projects, and the possibility
that future exploration results may be materially less promising
than initial exploration result; (I) any graphite, lithium,
vanadium or uranium discoveries not being in high-enough
concentration to make it economic to extract the metals; (m)
currently pending or new litigation or arbitration; and (n) other
factors which are more fully described in the Company’s Annual
Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and other
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or
more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should any of
the Company’s underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual
results may vary materially from those currently anticipated. In
addition, undue reliance should not be placed on the Company’s
forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company
disclaims any obligation to update or publicly announce any
revisions to any of the forward-looking statements contained in
this news release. The results of the initial optimization study
are preliminary in nature and subject to revision following WWR’s
further analysis of the Coosa Graphite Project.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190102005133/en/
Westwater Resources Contact:Christopher M. Jones,
President & CEOPhone: 303.531.0480
Jeff Vigil, VP Finance & CFOPhone: 303.531.0481Email:
Info@WestwaterResources.net
Investor Relations Contact:Michael PorterPorter, LeVay
and RosePhone: 212.564.4700Email:
Westwater@plrinvest.com
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