Fission Energy among Versant Partners' 2012 top stock picks

Fission Energy (CVE:FIS) has been named one of the top picks for 2012 by capital markets firm Versant Partners, as Versant is expecting an "inevitable consolidation" from the uranium explorer.
Fission is engaged in the acquisition and exploration of uranium properties in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec in Canada, as well as the Macusani District in Peru.
Versant has a "speculative buy" rating on Fission Energy with a $1.25 price target. Tuesday, Fission shares closed up 1.3 percent at $0.78.
Fission Energy's flagship Waterbury Lake project is located immediately west of Hathor Exploration’s (TSE:HAT) Roughrider uranium deposit, which is in the heart of a district that hosts over 110 million pounds of uranium.
Hathor was recently subject to a takeover battle in late 2011 between mining giants Cameco Corp. (TSE:CCO)(NYSE:CCJ) and Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO)(LON:RIO), with the latter emerging as the winner with its $654 million friendly bid trumping Cameco's $625 million bid.
Fission's J East Zone at Waterbury is the likely western extension of Hathor's Rougrider deposit as the property line is the only thing separating the two, Versant noted.

J East is one of several pods of mineralization along a “string of pearls” formation that runs deeper from west to east and includes Fission’s Summit, Talkiser, J Zone and J East Zones as well as Hathor’s Roughrider, Roughrider East and Far East Zones.

In a research note, Versant analyst Rob Chang said: "Fission will soon release its initial 43-101 compliant resource estimate for the [Waterbury Lake] J Zone. The resource is expected to be between 13–23 million pounds of uranium. We estimate that it will be about 18 million pounds of uranium."
In terms of consolidation, Versant Partners said that with the recently completed battle for Hathor won by Rio Tinto, it is generally believed that Hathor alone is too small to significantly impact the bottom line for the mining giant.
"As such, the consolidation of Hathor’s neighbour that has the shallower mineralization is a likely subsequent step," Versant Partners concluded.
Other companies in the below $250 million market cap range included in Versant's top picks for the year are Mawson West (TSE:MWE), MEGA Brands (TSE:MB) and QHR Technologies (CVE:QHR).