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Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

NEWS RELEASE: Global Atomic Signs Letter of Intent with CMAC-Thyssen for Portal and Underground Development (September 29, 2021)

Toronto, ON: Global Atomic Corporation (“Global Atomic” or the “Company”), (TSX: GLO, OTCQX: GLATF, FRANKFURT: G12) has signed a letter of intent with CMAC-Thyssen Mining Group to collar the portal and complete initial underground development at the Dasa Uranium Project in the Republic of Niger. The selection of CMAC-Thyssen resulted from a multi-party bidding process that required bidders to have project experience in West Africa.

The Box-Cut excavation is scheduled to begin in January 2022 using local contractors in Niger. CMAC-Thyssen plans to mobilize to the Dasa Site in February 2022. Once the Box-Cut excavation is complete, CMAC-Thyssen are expected to Collar the Portal in April 2022 thus initiating the Dasa Underground Development Campaign.

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Uranium: what the explosion in prices means for the nuclear industry – by Edward Thomas Jones, Danial Hemmings and Simon Middleburgh (The Conversation – September 24, 2021)

https://theconversation.com/

It is a year since Horizon Nuclear Power, a company owned by Hitachi, confirmed it was pulling out of building the £20 billion Wylfa nuclear power plant on Anglesey in north Wales.

The Japanese industrial conglomerate cited the failure to reach a funding deal with the UK government over escalating costs, and the government is still in negotiations with other players to try and take the project forward.

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Uranium price rally is a high-stakes bet on future of nuclear power – by Yvonne Yue Li, Will Wade and Stephen Stapczynski (Bloomberg News – September 22, 2021)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

After languishing at historical lows for the better part of the last decade, uranium suddenly came back from the dead. Prices have surged about 40% just in September, outpacing all other major commodities.

In just a few weeks, millions of pounds of supply was scooped up by the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust. It’s a massive bet on nuclear energy’s prominence in a carbon-free future. The problem is — at least for the investors who poured more than $240 million into the fund — the debate is still raging over whether and how nuclear can come to the forefront.

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Top 10 largest uranium mines in the world in 2020 – report – by Vladimir Basov Vladimir Basov (Kitco News – September 22, 2021)

https://www.kitco.com/

As Kitco reported previously, the world’s total uranium production amounted to 47,731 tonnes in 2020, a significant 13% decline over 2019 (54,742 tonnes), and the lowest level of global uranium output in more than a decade.

Based on data by the World Nuclear Association, Kitco ranked the world’s top ten largest uranium mines by reported / estimated production in 2020. These biggest mines are ready to ride the rising uranium wave.

1. Cigar Lake, Canada. 3,885 tU.

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Sprott’s aggressive uranium buying will not corner market, chief says – by Neil Hume (Financial Times – September 20, 2021)

https://www.ft.com/

The head of Sprott Asset Management has hit back at suggestions that its aggressive buying of uranium could corner the market for the nuclear fuel and spark regulatory interest.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Sprott chief executive John Ciampaglia said the physical uranium trust that Sprott launched in August would help rebalance the 180m-lb-a-year uranium market — driving prices to a level that spurred greater production of the radioactive material.

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As Uranium Soars, Top Trust Sees Hedge Funds Fueling Demand Lift – by Yvonne Yue Li and Joe Deaux (Bloomberg News – September 16, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The Canadian firm behind the world’s only physical uranium fund said hedge funds and family offices are driving up demand for the radioactive metal used to fuel nuclear reactors.

The Sprott Physical Uranium Trust has itself been on a buying spree, bolstering its stockpile by 45% in four weeks after snapping up 8.1 million pounds of the commodity as prices surged.

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Reddit squeeze goes nuclear, boosting uranium-related investments – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – September 14, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A speculative rally fuelled by Reddit is juicing the price of uranium and investments with exposure to the commodity, leaving investors and companies alike wondering how long the run will last.

The Sprott Physical Uranium Trust, an exchange-traded investment that tracks the price of uranium, rose by 15.5 per cent on Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Shares of uranium miner Cameco Corp., which have rallied 55 per cent since late August, ended the day flat after being up by 8 per cent at one point. Another producer, Denison Mines Corp., rose by 3 per cent on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Uranium price hits highest level since 2015 as Sprott buys up physical supply – by Staff (Mining.com – September 8, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

The uranium price has surged to the highest level since 2015 due in part to a single fund aggressively cornering the physical market.

Investment firm Sprott Inc. earlier this year launched its Physical Uranium Trust and recently commented on Twitter about how much physical uranium it had been buying, aiding to the commodity’s recent bull run.

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Op-ed: It ain’t lying to say there’s more than one path to net-zero carbon – by Rod Walton (Power Engineering – September 8, 2021)

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Nothing sobers you up like getting called a liar. Full confession: I’m almost invariably sober, as a general rule, if maybe tipsy on the joys of doing a job I love. I cover the energy industry and believe it to be the best (and most fun) job-creating element in business.

And another admission: I am part of the all-of-the-above crowd. In my mind, our power generation sector needs renewables like wind, solar and hydro—taking full advantage of the gifts of creation—but also natural gas, trash-to-energy, nuclear and, yes, coal.

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Nuclear fuel report sees positive long-term future (World Nuclear News – September 8, 2021)

https://world-nuclear-news.org/

Nuclear generation capacity is expected to grow by 2.6% annually, reaching 615 GWe by 2040 in the Reference Scenario of The Nuclear Fuel Report: Global Scenarios for Demand and Supply Availability 2021-2040, launched today at World Nuclear Association Annual Symposium 2021. Only 74% of 2020’s reactor requirements were covered by primary uranium supply.

The report is the latest in a series of reports published at roughly two-yearly intervals since 1975. Drafted with input from over 80 experts from across the global nuclear industry co-chaired by Alexander Boytsov of Tenex and James Nevling of Exelon Generation, the report uses publicly available information gathered from organisations active in the nuclear fuel cycle – both members and non-members of the Association – to produce projections for nuclear capacity and uranium production.

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AUSTRALIA’S NUCLEAR DILEMMA – PROF. IAN LOWE – by Kerrod Trott (Westender – August 9, 2021)

https://westender.com.au/

Ian Lowe’s new book – Long Half-life – The Nuclear Industry in Australia – is a timely and riveting account of the political, social and scientific complexities of the nuclear industry, revealing the power of vested interests, the subjectivities of scientists and the transformative force of community passion.

In describing the book, Ian Lowe said:

The discovery of large uranium deposits in the Northern Territory suggested that Australia could become a major exporter of radioactive minerals.

The Fox Report, commissioned by the Whitlam government to study the environmental impacts of the proposed Ranger uranium mine, broadened into an inquiry into the social and political issues of producing uranium.

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Nuclear Plants to Get $6 Billion Lifeline in Infrastructure Deal – by Ari Natter and Will Wade (Bloomberg News – August 2, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Struggling nuclear power reactors would get a $6 billion lifeline under the bipartisan infrastructure bill heading for a vote in the U.S. Senate — a move supported by the Biden administration, but opposed by some environmentalists.

A program to evaluate nuclear reactors that are at risk of being shut down and provide them with aid would be created within the Energy Department under terms of the $550 billion, bipartisan infrastructure package.

The senators negotiating the package completed the text Sunday, moving the chamber a crucial step closer to likely passage this week. Final congressional action won’t come until after the House returns from a recess in September.

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Uranium demand rising while supply remains uncertain: Cameco – by Andrea Jennetta (S&P Global – July 29, 2021)

https://www.spglobal.com/

Demand for uranium is growing at the same time supply is becoming less certain, said Cameco President and CEO Tim Gitzel July 28.

“Since 2011, about 1.6 billion pounds of uranium have been consumed in reactors, and only about half of that or 800 million pounds have been placed under long-term [utility] contracts,” Gitzel said in a second-quarter earnings call. “This has led to a growing wedge of uncovered uranium requirements,” he said.

“We’re also seeing increased demand for uranium from financial funds and junior uranium companies,” Gitzel said.

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How yellowcake shaped the West by Jonathan Thompson (High Country News – July 30, 2021)

https://www.hcn.org/

The ghosts of the uranium boom continue to haunt the land, water and people.

In late August 2018, in the heat of one of the warmest and driest years on record in the Four Corners country, under a blanket of smoke emanating from wildfires burning all over the place, I piloted the Silver Bullet — my trusty 1989 Nissan Sentra — to the quiet burg of Monticello, Utah.

I was on my way from one camping site on the Great Sage Plain to another on Comb Ridge, where I would feed my misanthropic side with a searing hike down a canyon, seeking out potholes that still had a smidgen of stagnant water left over from the last rain.

I took a detour through Monticello to look into one of the most contentious fronts of the long-running public-land wars, the battle over uranium mining and milling and even radioactive waste disposal. San Juan County’s public lands played a major role in what I call the Age of the Nuclear West, which reached its multi-decade apex during the Cold War and hasn’t ended yet.

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Greenland government ready to outlaw uranium mining – by Kevin McGwin (Nunatsiaq News – July 15, 2021)

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Greenland has taken the first step towards outlawing uranium mining after lawmakers there proposed a stricter version of a ban that the country’s national assembly overturned in 2013.

Only July 2, the elected government began a month-long public consultation period for a proposed bill that, in addition to mining uranium, would prohibit the feasibility studies and exploration activities that must be completed before a mining project can be considered for a license to begin operation.

According to proposal, Naalakkersuisut, the elected government, is hoping that a reinstatement of what was known as the zero-tolerance policy, to achieve its goal of ensuring that “Greenland neither produces nor exports uranium.”

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