BHP Billiton is moving into the athabasca basin?
Soo I was doing some research into Nexgen energy (NXE) and the construction progress on Rook 1 and noticed while looking at the Saskatchewan Mining and Petroleum GeoAtlas that sometime in the past month, BHP Billiton Canada Inc. has obtained 100% ownership on a number of mineral claims covering an extremely large area in the Southern Athabasca Basin uranium zone.
This is the area directly surrounding Nexgen’s Rook 1 project and Paladin Energy’s Patterson Lake South project.
Given that BHP is the world’s largest mining company and developing a new mine (especially high-grade uranium in the Athabasca) can easily take 10–20 years from discovery through permitting and construction, this feels like a potentially meaningful long-term positioning move. Majors don’t usually stake or hold ground in a district like this for no reason.
This also raises the question - is this a potential acquisition play?
Thoughts?