As the rest of the world distances themselves away from Russia, we have witnessed an economic impact that has caused various commodities prices to spike amid ideological decisions by Western nations to scale down their dependency on Russian supplies. One of those commodities is uranium, whose spot price is one of its most bullish runs in more than a decade, hitting a 10-year peak as the world seeks a shift from oil to alternative energy sources.

Nations globally have turned to look elsewhere to source their uranium. With this in mind, Australian shares that have exposure to uranium have fallen into the spotlight, and investors are paying attention.

Last year, Australian gold and uranium miner Gladiator Resources (ASX: GLA) and its subsidiary Zeus Resources was granted seven exploration tenements covering an area of over 1,764km² of highly prospective sites located in Tanzania, South Africa. According to some sources, South Africa holds around 6% of the world’s recoverable uranium deposits and reserves, ranking No. 5 against other nations. 

Ready now to capitalise on these assets, Zeus has appointed The MSA Group to assist it with exploration at the African site. MSA has a strong foothold in Africa, having worked with 30 countries on the continent – the Company has specialised in exploration, reserve estimation, mining and environment consulting. 

Gladiator Chairman, Ian Hastings, said, “The Company is pleased to see that Zeus is aggressively progressing its Uranium projects in Tanzania with the appointment of the MSA Group.”

The project undertaken by Gladiator and its subsidiary is the Mkuju site, located in southern Tanzania. The site has been disjointed into three segments for different areas known to contain uranium – the Liwale project, the Foxy project and the Eland project. MSA will be assisting these by finalising its exploration program and expects to be on site by the end of the Tanzanian wet season in May. 

The proposed work plan and budget will focus initially on drilling and ground surveying. This will generate targeted sites that will be ranked, prioritised and then systematically explored before Gladiator obtains a licence to begin mining.

“MSA brings the expertise to fast track resource estimation and to significantly progress the exploration process,” added Hastings. 

This news comes just days after the Company announced it exercised its Option to acquire the Rutherglen gold project located in Albury, Victoria. Covering an area of approximately 368km², gold production from this area has been forecasted to produce between 260,000oz and 529,000oz. 

GLA shares rocketed 330% to a high of $0.06 last year in August on the back of the Zeus Resources acquisition. Since then, however, shares pulled-back 50% to $0.03, and in the wake of the recent announcements, shares gained 3.33% to $0.031 at the time of writing.