Canada-based Bayswater Uranium Corp. has agreed to purchase uranium resources in the Powder River Basin.

The company has signed letters of intent with a subsidiary of Strathmore Minerals Corp. and American Uranium Corp. to buy the Pine Tree-Reno Creek property. The project is in a well-established uranium development district.

The deal includes state leases, private leases and access agreements on about 17,500 acres, according to a press release. The deposits are considered highly amenable to in-situ recovery methods.

The purchase price for a 100 percent interest in the project is $32 million, of which $30 million is payable to Strathmore and $2 million to American Uranium.

Strathmore also announced an agreement to sell seven uranium mineral leases in Crook County to Strata Energy Inc., a subsidiary Australia-based Peninsula Minerals Limited.

The leases, which comprise a total of 5,640 acres, were acquired by Strathmore in 2004. The state leases represent assets found outside Strathmore's core Gas Hills uranium development project. Peninsula is developing its Lance project near Oshoto in northeastern Wyoming.

Elsewhere, Titan Uranium has agreed to buy a 50 percent interest held by Uranium One in the Sheep Mountain property near Jeffrey City.

As a result, Titan will hold a 100 percent interest in the property, which has an inferred resource of 15.6 million pounds of U308.

Titan also will acquire Uranium One's 50 percent interest in the Hollie claims in Emery County, Utah, and will transfer its 50 percent interest in the Breccia Pipe project in Arizona and the Burro Canyon project in Colorado to Uranium One.

The terms include an initial cash payment of $850,000 for the Sheep Mountain and Hollie claims, and additional payments based on the spot price of uranium.

Also, Uranerz Energy Corp. of Casper said it has agreed to sell uranium to an undisclosed nuclear operator with plants in several states. It is the second contract Uranerz has signed with a U.S. utility.

Resource Capital Research of Sydney, Australia, noted last week that the uranium spot price was $47.50, down 8 percent from three months ago. The spot price is expected to remain flat in the near term.

The long-term contract price was at $65. "Industry fundamentals remain strong, underpinning support for the contract uranium price, with anticipated growth in nuclear reactors and risk of supply shortage mid term [four to eight years]," according to a Resource Capital assessment.

Business Editor Tom Mast can be reached at tom.mast@trib.com, or call 307-266-0574. Or check out his "Two Bits Worth" blog at tribtown.trib.com/TomMast/blog