Thank you very much, and welcome to everybody who's on the call. This is an exciting day for both ASM and Energy Fuels, and we are very happy to be presenting to you today together on the announcement that we've had this morning of Energy Fuels' offer to acquire Australian Strategic Materials. We do have a disclaimer, which I would encourage you to read at your own leisure, and I'm going to go straight into what, for me, is a very exciting day as we are really delivering on what we've been working on here in ASM since we listed in mid-2020 to deliver on our mine-to-metal strategy. What we've got here with this transaction, we believe, is an opportunity in combination with Energy Fuels to deliver a near-term Western mine-to-metal and alloy rare earth champion, and again, we are very excited about it.
The transaction overview is that we have entered into a scheme implementation deed with Energy Fuels that has an implied value as at Friday of AUD 1.60 per ASM share. Under the scheme, what ASM shareholders will be entitled to receive is a fixed ratio of Energy Fuels shares. That ratio is 0.053, and I think this has been important for us within ASM that we wanted to make sure that shareholders had the opportunity, the ASM shareholders had the opportunity, to be able to benefit from the synergies that we know that we're going to be able to create in the combined assets of ASM and Energy Fuels. So it is a fixed ratio deal. As at Friday, when we looked at it on a 14 or 15-day VWAP, that represented an implied value of AUD 1.47 per share.
And then, in addition to that fixed ratio share offer, there is also AUD 0.13 in cash per ASM share dividend, special dividend, that will be paid. So I do want to just emphasize that because I've had some calls already with people who haven't understood the implication of that. But what that does mean is that as the Energy Fuels share price lifts, as we would hope that we would continue to see as the market starts to realize the strength of this deal for Energy Fuels, then that increased share price does then flow through directly to improving the value of this deal. And in fact, if we were to value it as of close, Energy Fuels closed this morning, actually that implied value, rather than AUD 1.60, is actually closer to AUD 1.98.
That obviously is a very significant premium to where we have been trading over the recent times, and that in itself is very positive. But one of the reasons why the board is excited about this and has unanimously recommended it to shareholders is because we do see that this is a platform for us to accelerate our strategy and grow value for both the Energy Fuels and ASM shareholders going forward. So in absence of a superior proposal coming forward and subject to the independent experts, we are recommending that we go forward with this. All of the ASM directors intend to vote in support of this, subject to those other events. And importantly, Ian Gandel, our chairman, is also our major shareholder. He owns approximately 13.6% of ASM's issued shares, and he also is intending to vote for it and is fully supportive of this proposed acquisition.
The transaction highlights that I really just want to emphasize, I think the combination of our assets with ASM and Energy Fuels does create a near-term Western mine all the way through to metal and alloy supply chain and, importantly, delivers both heavy and light rare earth all the way through that chain into the magnet producers that are producing these high-performance magnets that are so critical for our clean energy and defense and advanced technologies for the world. What we're building on here, in addition to the ASM's proven operational record, particularly in metal and alloying, is that we are, through this transaction, getting direct access to Energy Fuels' proven operating track record in the United States with both mining but also, importantly, solvent extraction.
And we have a number of projects across other jurisdictions in Australia and in Africa and in South America that we will get access to as well through this transaction to feed those metal plants. The combined assets will also have a strategy that is very aligned to government interests and, in particular, very aligned to the framework agreement between Australia and the U.S. We will transfer our ownership because this is largely a conversion of equity from ASM into Energy Fuels that allows our shareholders to have ownership in a larger group with significant funding capacity. We do think this is going to be a very attractive entity to be able to access government funding, but also Energy Fuels has significant funding capacity from private sources as well. And because it's an established business with an established uranium revenue, we do see reduced risk through asset and commodity diversification.
The offer, as I said before, has a significant and attractive premium and allows our shareholders to continue to participate and have exposure to this strong growth pipeline. So I just want to go through each of those points, and then what I will do, because I also have Mark Chalmers, who is the Chief Executive for Energy Fuels, and Ross Bhappu, who is the President for Energy Fuels, on the call with me as well, and then I will give them an opportunity to introduce Energy Fuels to you, who perhaps Energy Fuels is less well known in the Australian market, but what we have here, first of all, is we have, in the combination of assets, the opportunity to very rapidly establish the end-to-end supply chain that is completely independent of the existing supply chain in China. And the world needs this supply chain.
There's a lot of people challenging how it's going to get done. Here's a solution with real credibility where we can show that we have got near-term capability to provide this Western mine-to-metal solution across these jurisdictions. The four sources or four sort of projects that Energy Fuels have with the Donald Project in Australia, the Vara Mada in Madagascar, and Bahia in Brazil are all projects that will be source feed. But what we have is an opportunity to add our Dubbo Project in as a source feed into that chain as well. Those products can all flow through to the White Mesa Mill, which is the established processing facility that Energy Fuels have in Utah. There they separate the rare earths into both a neodymium and praseodymium oxide, but also those two heavy rare earth oxides, the dysprosium and the terbium.
That then can flow through to our Korean Metals Plant where we have got established capability to be able to metallize those products into the high-purity metals and then combine them into the specialist alloys that then can be exported to the emerging magnet producers globally. We also have the opportunity to leverage the capabilities that Energy Fuels have in the U.S. for establishing the second metal plant, which we have been planning to do, leveraging the established capability that we have in Korea into the U.S. Indeed, Utah is one of the states where we have done significant due diligence on locating that plant, so this would enable that to progress, leveraging the relationships that Energy Fuels have.
The second sort of key area that we spoke about is that we would have access to the proven operating track record of Energy Fuels and that we would be aligned to our government interests. And I think, again, we'll hear more from Mark and Ross shortly about what they do have there. But I had the opportunity to visit those facilities in recent weeks and was deeply impressed. The White Mesa Mill has got. This is not a project that's just talking about doing the separation of rare earths. This is an operation that's been operating for 45 years already and has got deep capability in solvent extraction for uranium, and it has already well progressed in leveraging that for producing rare earth oxides and already has volumes of product coming through.
So we're very excited to be able to leverage that capability as well as the rest of the operating discipline that we can see is a core component of Energy Fuels. But we're also very conscious of the fact that there's a very strong alignment between the U.S. and Australian governments with the U.S. Australian Critical Minerals Framework, and that what we're building here is a business that is going to be right in the sweet spot of what that policy is hoping to enable. And so we really anticipate that we will be very attractive for government funding as we go forward developing the various different projects. And in part, that's exciting to have that kind of government support. But what we also anticipate is that we will be a leading producer of rare earths.
There will be very few businesses that can compete with getting the established production in the timeframe that we're going to be able to when we work together. And that is going to give us the opportunity to also have access to private funds as we become a leading rare earth producer in this emerging market. It is going to be valuable for ASM shareholders to be part of a larger group that has that significant funding capacity. And this slide just gives a sense of just what the opportunity is. But from a key point here, we obviously, prior to announcement, were sitting at about a AUD 200 million market cap. Energy Fuels was sitting at closer to $5 billion, so that's over AUD 7.5 billion.
And we're very excited about what we will continue to see and how that can grow as we work together going forward. There is strength that comes from growth, but there's also strength that comes from a reduced risk and that reduced risk through the asset diversity that we've already spoken about. There is the jurisdiction diversification that we will see, and this is very much building a business that is through Australia, Korea, Madagascar, Brazil, and the U.S. So that's exciting in itself. But then also what we see is the commodity diversification where you have uranium, you have the heavy mineral sands, and you have the rare earth. So it is going to be a very robust entity to be able to face into the challenges as we develop these projects going forward. And we have an offer that is a significant and attractive premium for ASM shareholders.
The implied value of AUD 1.60, I think, because of the structure of the deal with the way that it's been managed with the fixed ratio, gives the ASM shareholders a real opportunity for upside, and you can see there how neatly our assets fit into this development pipeline that Energy Fuels were already well advanced on developing, so the ASM shareholders get the opportunity to have exposure, continued exposure to the work that we've been doing on our assets, but also enhance that with ongoing exposure to the whole of this very strong growth pipeline, so I now want to pass over to Mark and to Ross to give you a bit more of the Energy Fuels story, so over to you, Mark.
Thank you, Rowena, and first of all, it's my pleasure and Ross's pleasure to be able to participate in this conference call with you.
Look, we're very excited about this transaction. We believe that we are stronger together because the way we complement where we're trying to get for integration with the diversification, Rowena, that you've talked about. I just think makes all the sense in the world. I'll go to the next slide, which just gives a little bit of a corporate overview of Energy Fuels. We are a dual-listed company on the New York Stock Exchange American under UUUU, and also on the TSX under EFR. We're Denver-based. We're a critical mineral company that is built around our uranium business, but also rapidly emerging in the rare earth space and also the ability to eventually mine the heavy mineral sands that provide the monazite. We are very well positioned in the United States with the largest producer of uranium in the United States.
The White Mesa Mill is very unique because it is a uranium mill and vanadium mill that we converted to also be able to process rare earth into the oxides, both the lights, and we're piloting the heavies, but we have plans to be recovering heavies later this year. We are licensed to produce over 8 million lbs of uranium. We have just recently submitted a what we call phase II rare earth separation processing plant at White Mesa that we will be able to take the existing uranium rare earth processing. It's all done in one mill. We call that phase I and have a complete separate rare earth processing facility we call phase II and also the uranium processing separate from the rare earths. We see that as a very big step happening in around 2027 or 2028.
We've been making and successfully produced commercial quantities of many of these rare earth products, mainly from monazite feedstock and hopefully through we see Dubbo in the future, and we're rapidly advancing all these things with this phase I that I talked about in the current uranium mill where we share the uranium and the rare earths, but we have the capability of producing 1,000 tons per annum of NdPr oxide and later this year to recover both the Dy and the Tb heavies with the addition to that phase I i n the mill. We also recently, in October of 2024, we acquired Base Resources, which was another ASX-listed company based in Perth that has the Toliara project, which we have renamed Vara Mada, and we also have the joint venture with the Donald project, which is permitted in Victoria. We're earning 49% interest, but getting 100% of the rare earths.
We have a very, very experienced leadership team with myself, who I've spent half my life in Australia, worked for Paladin Energy and ran Heathgate Resources. So I've spent a lot of time in Australia, still have a home in Australia and an Australian citizen. Ross will join in a minute as president, worked for Resource Capital Funds and also has had a lot of exposure to Australia. Dave Frydenlund, our Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Curtis Moore, Senior VP of Marketing, Nathan Longenecker, Senior VP, and Nate Bennett. Rowena touched on the company itself. We're very, very strong. The share performance has been outstanding. Rowena, you mentioned you got a nice kick today with the uptick of our shares. We're up almost 7% today alone.
We have a very, very strong balance sheet where we have about $300 million of working capital, but we also, and I'm talking U.S. dollars here, we just had a convert issued with Goldman Sachs for $700 million at a coupon rate of 0.75%, which we're very proud of because that is very cheap money that we have. We're trading very strong like a gorilla on the New York Stock Exchange. We trade about $300 million-$400 million per day. So a very liquid stock. We've been on a very significant uptrend, particularly over the last year. Actually, we were the best performing. If you compare this just to a uranium peer, we are the best performing uranium stock I know of in the world globally. What I'm going to do now is this next slide on the portfolio summary.
I'm going to hand it over to Ross, our president. And Ross, go ahead and take it away for the next couple of slides.
Thank you, Mark, and thank you, Rowena. I'm thrilled with this announcement today and the partnership with ASM. I think it's an incredible match. The portfolio of assets within Energy Fuels includes seven mines and development mines. We have two that are currently operating. We have an ISR project that's currently on standby. We have two permitting projects that are in the permitting phase and one project that's in the development stage. Those mines largely feed the White Mesa Mill. And the White Mesa Mill, as we've talked about earlier, it's the only operating conventional mill in the United States today. It has a capacity of, well, it's licensed for 8 million lbs , as Mark said. It's got a capacity of 6 million lbs.
We will be the largest producer of uranium in the U.S. today, and that's been a great springboard into the rare earth side of the business. And we have an incredible technical team at our White Mesa Mill. And what they discovered over time was that they could convert the processing technologies that they have for uranium to treat rare earth minerals. And we discovered in particular that it's ideally suited to Monazite. And the beauty of monazite is monazite is heavy in both the heavy minerals and the light minerals. So it's a very nice match when you're producing neodymium iron boron magnets.
The White Mesa Mill today, we're going to talk about it on the next slide, but when we discovered that we could treat monazite, we said, "Well, how do we get access to more monazite and our own controlled monazite?" Through that, we entered into agreements to partner with Astron to secure all the monazite offtake from the Donald project in Australia. That project is very near FID. We, as Mark mentioned, acquired Base Resources last year. That gave us the Vara Mada project, formerly called the Toliara project, arguably the best source of monazite in the world, a world-class project by any standard. Then prior to that, we had acquired the Bahia project in Brazil. Those three projects are all heavy mineral sands projects and produce monazite sands as a byproduct of the heavy mineral sands.
is a tremendous springboard for us into rare earths by supplying monazite feed to our White Mesa Mill. If we jump to the next slide, the White Mesa Mill is really a crown jewel within our portfolio. You can see it there in the center. On the left side of the page, you will see that we treat both uranium and vanadium ores from our various mines. As it flows through the White Mesa Mill, we produce uranium yellowcake, U3O8. We have the ability to produce vanadium. We have produced quite a lot of vanadium historically. We are also in the process of expanding our ability to produce medical isotopes, which is a fascinating treatment for cancer using targeted alpha therapies. As I mentioned, we discovered that we could process monazite.
With our heavy mineral sands projects, the monazite now would flow through the White Mesa Mill and produce various rare earth oxides, specifically NdPr, terbium, and dysprosium. But we are also exploring the potential of producing and processing other REE minerals and heavy minerals. And then you can see the heavy mineral sands projects also produce titanium and zircon. I think the interesting thing here is when you look at the right side of that page, everything we're doing falls into the critical mineral category. And so we're very much a diverse supplier of critical minerals to the Western world. And it puts us in a very, very unique and exciting position. So with that, let me turn it back to Mark to finish off on Energy Fuels.
Okay. Thank you. And look, I'm just going to talk a bit more about the White Mesa Mill.
As Ross said, it has really become the centerpiece of our company with the flexibility that it has to treat all these critical minerals. I go back many years with this facility. I actually worked for the family that built this mill in 1980. And I still get messages on Facebook from some of the former owners that they're really pleased that I still have some involvement with it. But the picture's worth a thousand words. You can see the existing facility. It's 45 years old, but in really good nick, been well maintained. The phase I is what I was talking about earlier that can do uranium, vanadium, and the rare earths. And it's in that building that you see closest to you. But in the background is the phase II. In the phase II, we have submitted the permit applications, as I mentioned, for that expansion.
And that will be a completely separate rare earth plant on its own, the size of Lynas. So about 6,000 tons of NdPr per year and also the capability to recover nearly 300 kgs or tons of Dy and around 80 tons-90 tons. I don't know the exact numbers of Tb. So it is a very, very substantial plant. And then when we have the phase II, we can run the phase I plant as a uranium-vanadium plant only, and the phase II can run rare earths. So very aggressive strategy here. We produced a lot of uranium over the years, over 40 million lbs of uranium and nearly 50 million lbs of vanadium. Ross touched on it. It has a licensed capacity of about 8 million lbs . And I talked about the phase I, phase II. So it's a very unique facility.
Utah is a great place to do business. Low power costs, low water costs, excellent workforce, very motivated workforce, and so what we did is we saw this ASM transaction as taking us another step down the line with the metallization, which we think is very, very critical to show integration, and then having the Dubbo Project become a pipeline project to complement our existing projects, and we think Dubbo fits uniquely into our company because of the synergies that we have between that project and the White Mesa Mill, so again, very excited. Rowena, I'll turn it back to you, and I just thank everybody for listening to our pitch from our end, but we are very focused on creating value for all our shareholders, so again, thank you.
Thanks very much, Mark and Ross.
And for those on the call who've been on this ASM journey all the way through, you would know that we have been very strong on the fact that the only way that we're going to establish this alternative supply chain to be able to really compete with the existing supply chain, the only way that's going to happen rapidly is through partnership. But the challenge for us is to find partners of substance. I spoke about it in the AGM. There's a lot of what I think I referred to at the time as puffery out there in the market at the moment. There's certainly a lot of people who are promoting things that are all talk and don't have substance.
We were very intent for ASM shareholders and also for these assets to make sure that we were partnering with a team who we really felt would be able to do something really extraordinary with us with these projects. And hopefully, listening to Mark and Ross, you can understand why we're so pleased to be presenting this transaction because we really believe that we have got a very strong partner here for us to proceed with. So I'm very happy now to open to questions.
Excellent. Thanks, Rowena. So the first question I'm going to take you to is regarding the actual structure of the consideration for the deal, specifically the fixed ratio. Assuming that if the share price of Energy Fuels goes up, does then the implied value in the takeover or the transaction increase and vice versa?
Yes, that's exactly the way it's structured.
So obviously, the offer that we've got from Energy Fuels does have a cash component. It has a AUD 0.13 cash component. So that's fixed, and that will come through as an unsanctioned special dividend. But the rest of the offer is in a fixed ratio of Energy Fuels shares. So when we provided the materials and we signed off on them, we included an implied total value of AUD 1.60 per share, which was based on the 15-day VWAP of Energy Fuels' value as of Friday. But if we were to do that implied value based on close as of this morning, then that implied value would actually be AUD 1.98. And the premium that would be being offered to ASM shareholders on our close for our share price yesterday would be 173%.
So as we see the Energy Fuels' share price get stronger, we will see the implied value of this offer increase. And the reverse, if it comes down, then it will reduce it.
Excellent. Thank you. And the next, we've received a few questions regarding the implications of this transaction on the Dubbo Project. And where do you see this going in the future?
We've been working hard on de-risking the Dubbo Project. Again, those that have been on this journey with us have heard me talk about this a number of times. Recently, we looked at how we could reduce the capital hurdle to bring Dubbo online more rapidly. And we issued the study, the heap leach study, that showed that we've got a really credible pathway forward based on very strong recovery results that would enable us to reduce the capital by over half.
So that brought it down to AUD 740 million. And we're continuing to do that study work at the moment. But the assumption has always been at Dubbo that we would take the product all the way through to separated oxides. One of the opportunities that this provides for us if we proceed with this transaction is that we could, instead of taking it to oxide in Dubbo, we could take it all the way through to an intermediate product instead, which would reduce the capital requirements for Dubbo further, something in the order of AUD 200 million. And that intermediate product could then go directly into the White Mesa plant for processing. So there are synergies there. And one of the other lovely synergies of that is that that intermediate product would also contain low levels of uranium, which obviously Energy Fuels have a special expertise in.
Not only are they able to take it, but they're able to create value from it. So this could be, in addition to having a supply chain for the Dubbo Project to come into, it's actually also potentially going to enhance the economics of Dubbo because we've got a lower capital option with additional revenue options. And it's also just a much easier process to be doing this off a much stronger funding platform. And there's no doubt that the combined entity will attract both government and private funding in a way that ASM has not got the same access to.
Excellent. And this is probably a good segue. We've had a few questions about the AMP project. So can you please provide firstly a brief overview of where we're at and what the implications are of this transaction on that, so the integration benefits and also the potential benefits of this would be to any DoW investment?
Yes. So I think that the immediate focus at the moment for us is on the expansion of the Korean facility and that we are progressing well. We got additional funding late last year, and we are well progressed on acquiring or in final negotiations on securing the additional equipment to expand that facility from 1,300 ton to 3,600 ton per annum rates. And that is where we would anticipate initially the product from the Energy Fuels' supply chain will be coming through and supporting that expansion. But yeah, we're very excited about what this transaction can do for the Korean Metals Plant.
We've been very positive about leveraging the established capability that we have in Korea into the states. We've been exploring six different states. But again, I've said repeatedly that we would choose the final state based on what's going to work best with whomever we choose to partner with. And so that obviously will be a conversation that we will continue to have as this transaction progresses. But Utah has always been one of the states that we have looked at. We met with the governor of Utah late last year as part of our due diligence. There's a lot about doing this in Utah that was attractive before we were having these conversations with Energy Fuels. And obviously, this enhances that. So there are other states that will still compete, and it is a very competitive process.
But yeah, obviously, leveraging the relationships that Energy Fuels have is going to be great. And then you asked about the Department of War. There's no doubt that the discussions with any government department are going to be stronger when we have such local representation and when we have a much stronger integrated solution to provide and where we have a much stronger balance sheet. So I definitely think it's going to enhance the discussions that we already have underway with the DoW.
Excellent. And then what is the impact of this transaction on the company's current discussions with the export credit agencies and specifically U.S. EXIM and Export Development Canada?
Again, this is going to be important for us going forward, but all of the parties that have been talking about supporting us in funding have all been concerned about where is your offtake going to go and where is the equity funding going to come from that's going to support the debt funding that they're providing. So this is going to, I think, be a very positive conversation that we have with our funding partners in the coming weeks because this is exactly what they want to see. They want to see the U.S. and Australia entities working together. They want to see these supply chains being established across allied countries. So this Australia and Korea and U.S. working together is exactly what they want. They want to see the product going into the U.S., in particular the U.S. EXIM.
So this will be very pleasing for them, I'm sure. But also, they want to see that financial robustness. So we'll be having those discussions in the coming weeks. Clearly, this has to be voted for by shareholders. It has to go through a FIRB regulatory approval process. So it won't be finalized probably till closer to the middle of the year. So we've got plenty of time to work through this with U.S. EXIM. But I think it will strengthen our discussions with them and provide us with more flexibility.
Excellent. And then to the extent that you're able to, can you shed some light on where the thinking is on integration and specifically who the management team be going across?
So we have had some preliminary discussions about integration. Obviously, Energy Fuels don't have a footprint in the Korea region.
So the first part would be that's just a fairly clean pickup and drop. So I wouldn't anticipate any significant changes there. What we will see, similarly, what we're doing in Dubbo is all fairly standalone. I think the real opportunity in integration is what we're doing here in Perth because Base Resources also had a Perth office. And so Energy Fuels actually have their Australian head office just around the corner from us here in West Perth, which is great. So we'll keep working and talking over the next couple of months on what that integration plan looks like and how it's going to best work. And I think that's not certain yet.
But one thing that is clear is that this management team is very committed to a successful transition of these assets into an integrated business, and that there's a lot of experience in this management team that I know Energy Fuels value. And so we will certainly be staying with it as long as it is required in order to make sure that this is a very successful transition.
Excellent. Now I have just a few questions for the Energy Fuels team. So you spoke a bit about your rare earths experience, but it would be great if you could expand on that and then specifically comment on the current intentions or thoughts regarding the NdPr, dysprosium, and terbium products coming out of the White Mesa Mill and how they'll integrate with ASM's existing metallization facilities.
Yeah. Look, I mean, I think that these ASM facilities, as Rowena talked today, they really bolt on perfectly to our strategy of integration because if you're in China, you basically get your raw materials and you go through to electric car, and by going from the mine to an alloy, that takes us a lot of those steps right on down the supply chain here, so we see very keen interest with OEMs and tier ones to basically interested in a non-China product, and we see that the fact that we have these multiple projects that are diversified in different countries, so you have different country risks and the ability to process this in the United States.
And also now, assuming this transaction closes, having the ability to go through the metals and alloys as being very, very compelling and powerful for our future customers, whether it be private or even potentially U.S. government or other government agencies or even into Europe. So again, we're stronger together. We have this momentum. We have this capacity. But we really have this gap on the back end, which was the metals and alloys, which this transaction completes that with expansion potential and the ability the AMP in the United States, we think, is very, very exciting, as is the KMP as well too. So I don't know if I fully answered your question, but again, we're stronger together.
Excellent. Thank you, Mark. And another one for the Energy Fuels team. The Energy Fuels share price has seen quite a sharp increase in recent months. Are you able to comment on that and specifically what are the sort of key developments that have happened or that you see happening that could and what that means for the future trading price?
Yeah. Look, I think our share price has increased markedly because really, if you go back a year or two, we were not being valued as a rare earth producer at all. We were being valued as a uranium producer, but we were actually being hobbled a bit because people thought, "Why would we go down this path of becoming a rare earth producer when we should stick to our nitty-nitty as a uranium producer?" Well, I think investors have finally woken up and seen why we did this because diversification is really strong and particularly the assets that we picked up.
And what's also kind of amusing is that, as a uranium producer, people thought we were getting out of the uranium business and we're actually really outproducing. We're updating our guidance. We're beating our guidance on uranium production when many companies are falling short with a number of the U.S. companies. And you're seeing it with a number of the Australian companies falling short on their production. And we're doing just the opposite. And we have really excellent margins on our uranium production, better margins than anybody else I know of in the business, not including like Kaz, Orano, or Cameco. But I think that's why we've had this strong share appreciation over the last year or two is a realization that this is a diversified, strong strategy with multiple assets and the ability to deliver both on the uranium front and the rare earth front.
Ross, I don't know if you have anything to add to that.
Well, Mark, I would just add that I think the market's recognizing the fundamental supply and demand imbalances that are coming for both rare earths and uranium, and I think we're in a perfect position to capitalize on those, and I think the market's recognizing that we're in a great spot to take advantage of increased demand and limited supplies of both the rare earth minerals and uranium.
Fantastic, and then we just got some questions about the actual mechanics of the transaction, so can you just comment briefly on at this stage the expected timeline and some of the key conditions that will need to be met and specifically talking about some of the approvals.
So we obviously are making this announcement today.
We are immediately starting in the coming days the process of seeking the government approvals. The key government approval is the FIRB approval. So that's one that is difficult for us to predict exactly how long that's going to take. But we're anticipating that will be somewhere around about four weeks. And so that's one of the key conditions precedent for us closing this transaction. And then it is a scheme and it needs to be voted for by shareholders. So they will then go through that process. So, did I say four weeks then or four months? No, I'm not sure what I said. Anyway, I'm expecting FIRB will take four months. So if I did say four weeks, that was miles too optimistic. So four months and then a bit to go through that process.
So we're anticipating at the moment that we will close this deal somewhere around about June of this year. And then I think, again, what shareholders will be voting on is whether or not we proceed with the offer under the terms of the scheme. And we will be preparing in the coming weeks a scheme booklet that will have a substantial amount of detail for shareholders to be able to consider. So I'm not anticipating that people are making a decision today based on what we've released today. We will be spending the coming weeks preparing those materials, which will come out in due course for shareholders to consider.
Excellent. That is all the questions we have received to date.
I think one thing that I did say is that the scheme consideration is a combination of a special dividend and a fixed ratio of Energy Fuels shares.
I should just say, because I have some queries coming to me, is it just shares? And no, it's not. It's a special dividend, which will be cash. And then the fixed ratio of Energy Fuels can be in shares or you can also shareholders can elect to do a CHESS Depositary Interest or a CDI for that. Again, the specific details of the mechanism will be in that scheme booklet. So there'll be plenty of opportunity to see that. But we have given consideration for the fact that our register is predominantly Australian investors.