Atomic Eagle Ltd (ASX:AEU, FRA:6QZ0) earlier this week outlined plans to advance its Muntanga and Madaouela uranium projects as the company works towards defining the scale, economics and development pathways for both assets.
CEO Phil Hoskins told Proactive that Atomic Eagle now had two high-quality, advanced uranium projects which the company believed were capable of being online by 2030.
The company's immediate focus at Madaouela in Niger is a technical review of the existing project database. Hoskins said the asset already contained a resource of about 116 million pounds at almost 1,300 ppm and described it as "one of the best undeveloped uranium projects in the world".
He said around US$160 million had historically been spent on the project, leaving Atomic Eagle with a substantial drilling and technical database on which to base its review.
Hoskins said the objective was to determine how Madaouela could be developed as a larger-scale and more economic operation. The company expects to release the first phase of its update in the first quarter, with Hoskins saying Atomic Eagle's current expectations were that the project could support production of around four million to five million pounds of uranium per annum.
That update represents one of the company's most immediate potential catalysts. It is expected to be followed by additional work and trade-off studies that will help shape Madaouela's development pathway.
Hoskins also said Atomic Eagle ultimately planned to undertake a financing process for Madaouela and would likely seek to introduce a strategic partner. He said interest could potentially come from parties in China, the US or elsewhere, depending on the structure that best served shareholders.
Muntanga in Zambia provides a second development catalyst. Hoskins described it as Atomic Eagle's flagship asset and said drilling would continue through the remainder of the year. The company then expects a resource update in the first quarter, followed by feasibility studies through 2027.
Hoskins said Muntanga had already grown from about 47 million pounds to almost 60 million pounds and continued to expand.
With technical work progressing across both assets, the Q1 updates at Madaouela and Muntanga, followed by feasibility and financing-related work, are set to provide investors with several milestones to monitor through 2027.
. Interview highlights
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Atomic Eagle has two advanced uranium projects: Muntanga in Zambia and Madaouela in Niger.
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Hoskins said Muntanga has grown from approximately 47 million pounds to almost 60 million pounds and continues to grow.
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Atomic Eagle has launched a technical review of Madaouela aimed at determining how the asset could become a larger-scale and more economic project.
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Hoskins highlighted Madaouela's approximately 116 million pound resource at almost 1,300 ppm.
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The company expects the first phase of the Madaouela update in Q1.
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Hoskins said Atomic Eagle believes Madaouela could potentially support production of around 4–5 million pounds per annum.
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At Muntanga, Atomic Eagle plans further drilling, a Q1 resource update and feasibility studies through 2027.
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Following the Madaouela review, the company expects to undertake additional work and trade-off studies.
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Atomic Eagle ultimately intends to pursue a financing process for Madaouela, potentially involving a strategic partner.
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Hoskins said both projects are advanced and capable, in the company's view, of being online by 2030.
Proactive: Welcome back inside our Proactive newsroom. Joining me now is Phil Hoskins, CEO of Atomic Eagle Limited. Phil, it's great to see you. How are you? Good to have you alongside us to talk a bit more about what's going on in the company. I know you've had some recent news, and we'll talk about that in just a second, but for those not familiar, give me a bit of background on the company.
Phil Hoskins: Atomic Eagle listed in November 2025. We acquired a listed uranium company. It had two assets: the Muntanga Project in Zambia, which we really liked because it was a simple project in a great jurisdiction, and Madaouela in Niger.
Muntanga has grown from 47 million pounds to almost 60 million pounds and is continuing to grow. Madaouela had been lost, and we've spent a lot of this year negotiating with the Niger government to get it back.
There's been some great news out of Niger with some US financing recently and Global Atomic, so things in the country are really turning a corner. For us, it's fantastic to bring a world-class asset back into the fold.
Proactive: The most recent news was that you've launched a review of Madaouela to see where it is, where it needs to get to and where you're going. That's basically what this review is going to be about, right?
Phil Hoskins: Definitely. You just look at the numbers and they jump off the page already. You've got a 116 million pound resource at almost 1,300 ppm. So, in anybody's calculations, that's one of the best undeveloped uranium projects in the world.
Historical studies, we don't think, have done the project justice, although what we have inherited is US$160 million spent on the project. So the technical database and the drilling database are significant. It's an advanced asset.
It's essentially a technical review aimed at asking: how do we make it as large-scale and as economic a project as possible?
It won't take too long with the amount of data that's there. We expect in Q1 to release the first phase of that update, and our expectations are that it could be a four to five million pound per annum operation, which puts it as one of the larger-scale developments out there at the moment.
Proactive: The report that was filed was back in 2022. I remember doing a story on it because it was using a uranium price of, I think, US$55. So things have changed.
Phil Hoskins: No doubt. Like the gold projects at the moment that are able to come out with updated studies at higher prices, it's our turn in the uranium space.
No doubt there'll be much more uranium ore coming into the mine plan. When you're selling it for much higher prices, the impact is significant. In all commodity projects, the economics are most sensitive to the commodity price. When you've got such a large uranium endowment, it will be exactly the same for this project.
Proactive: Phil, will that guide what work plan you'll do in 2027? When you get this report back and understand how you increase the project and what you do to make it bigger, will that guide the work you want to do moving forward?
Phil Hoskins: It definitely will. We're now in a position where we've got two high-quality, advanced projects capable of being online by 2030.
We've mentioned that the Muntanga Project in Zambia is our flagship asset in a fantastic jurisdiction. It's fully permitted with mining licences and environmental approvals, and it has had a feasibility study done on it.
On the Zambian asset, we're going to continue down the path of drilling for the rest of this year, with a resource update in Q1 and then feasibility studies through 2027.
With the Madaouela Project, as you rightly point out, in the first quarter of next year I think we'll be daylighting the value of that asset. There will then be a work programme of additional works and trade-off studies.
Ultimately, our end game there is to run a financing process, and we'll likely attract a strategic partner into that asset. What that deal ends up looking like will be whatever is in shareholders' best interests.
But you can be assured there's no shortage of interest from strategic parties, whether it be from China, the US or anywhere else, in an asset of that quality.
It's also quite encouraging recently to see the US Development Finance Corporation conditionally agree to US$414 million of debt financing for the Global Atomic project in Niger. That's an indication of how strategic some of the quality uranium is in that country.
Proactive: Absolutely. Phil, thanks so much. Really good update. We look forward to following your story. It's going to get interesting in the next few months and into 2027 as well, so we look forward to keeping an eye on what's going on.
Phil Hoskins: Thank you.
