Northern Uranium in Trading Halt

I was seriously considering taking a position in Northern Uranium today.  The stock piqued my interest after trading volumes spiked (along with share price) yesterday which was backed up again this morning.  I commenced my research.

The basis of my research was to determine if there was any exploration results due or maybe simply renewed interest in the stock because of it's rare earth projects which is a sector that can be hot and have renewed bursts (Lynas Corporation LYC has been strong in the last month).

One of the first things I do like to check is the market capitilisation, number of shares on issue and cash on hand.  Market capitilisation gives me a good idea of what the company is valued at already considering I like to target low value companies with lots of potential upside.  Number of shares will give me an idea of how many shares could potentially flood the market, stifle the share price and thus prevent any upside.  Finally, cash on hand is a good way of seeing if the company has enough cash to keep exploring and won't have to raise cash soon (and thus dilute my share holding).  Northern Uranium ticks most of the boxes - small market capitilisation of $11 million (undiluted), about 100 million shares on issue which is okay but slightly pushing it and $2.5 million in cash, enough for now.  The next step?  The industry that it lies in.  Uranium and Rare Earths.  I always like to go for companies in a sector that is favourable now.  At example at the moment would be companies that surround Sandfire Resources (SFR) Doolgunna region such as Sipa Resources (SRI), Thundelarra Exploration (THX), and Resource & Investment (RNI).  Rare Earths would fit into one of those favourable sectors.  The other thing I did notice was Areva was on the register.  It is always a plus having a big boy such as Areva around because they don't take an interest in little tidlers like NTU without a reason.

However before my research was complete and whilst writing up this post the stock went into pre-open followed by a trading halt.  Talk about disclosure!  There was definitely a leak on this one.  The announcement due to be released on or before Monday is in relation to "a potential corporate transaction".  Hard to know what to make of this.  The company has completed soil sampling at it's rare earth projects recently so I intially thought maybe we may have some further information on that but the mention of corporate transaction blows that idea!