Uranium miner Uranerz Energy (NYSEMKT: URZ) says it will restate its financials for all of 2011 and the first three quarters of 2012 because it improperly capitalized expenses related to its Nichols Ranch project in Wyoming as construction in progress rather than as an exploration expense.
According to the company, because Uranerz is an exploration-stage company, the costs associated with constructing its first mine should have continued to be taken as exploration expenses in keeping with SEC guidelines rather than capitalized. Uranerz said all its previous exploration activities had been appropriately expensed.
"The restatement of our financial statements is to adjust for an accounting reclassification of project costs and will not change the Company’s reported cash in treasury, its cash flow, or its business plan," CFO Benjamin Leboe is quoted as saying.
The Nichols Ranch in-situ recovery uranium project is located in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming where production wells at its first wellfield have been substantially completed and the remaining wells are expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2013.
After receiving the appropriate state permits, Uranerz said it began to capitalize various costs associated with mine construction.
