OREANDA-NEWS. April 20, 2012. Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) announced today that it has advanced its strategy of securing rights to acquire uranium for use in nuclear fuels that it supplies to energy utilities around the world with the completion of a convertible debt-financing agreement with GoviEx Uranium Inc., a privately held, Canada-based uranium development and exploration company.

Toshiba's agreement with GoviEx includes:

Utilizing uranium provided by Advance Uranium Asset Management Ltd[1], a Toshiba Group company, to finance a USD30 million (approx. 2.4 billion yen) purchase of senior secured convertible bonds issued by GoviEx, and loaning 0.2 million pounds (equivalent of USD 10million) of uranium to GoviEx to support the company's operations through to the start of uranium extraction and processing. This agreement will not impact on Toshiba's cash flow this year.
A 14-year off-take agreement under which Toshiba has the right to acquire a significant portion of the projected annual production of uranium from GoviEx's planned Madaouela Project in Niger, West Africa.

Production at the Madaouela Project is expected to begin in 2017 and Toshiba's off-take rights to uranium concentrate will become effective in 2020, when output is expected to reach its peak capacity of more than 2.7 million pounds of uranium concentrate per year. The annual off-take of concentrate will be approximately 0.6 million pounds a year, equivalent to the annual fuel requirement of one 1,000-megawatt-class nuclear power plant. Sales of the uranium will be handled by Advance Uranium Asset Management Ltd, a UK-based Toshiba Group Company.

GoviEx holds the rights to 103 million pounds of uranium resources at the Madaouela project, located near Arlit in the Republic of Niger, one of the most significant sandstone-hosted uranium deposits in the world. Building a long-term strategic partnership with GoviEx and securing the additional supply of uranium will enable Toshiba to continue the diversification of its procurement of uranium resources for the nuclear fuels that Toshiba supplies to operators of nuclear plants.