You can subscribe to our free newsletter on our homepage to receive our stories in your inbox. Image by Markus Distelrath from Pixabay. With this context in mind, here is our list of the 10 best uranium stocks to buy now.
Uranium Royalty Corp. It was founded in and is placed tenth on our list of 10 best uranium stocks to buy now. It was founded in and is ranked ninth on our list of 10 best uranium stocks to buy now. In addition to stakes in nuclear fuel technology, the company also provides nuclear energy consulting services. The firm aims to reduce the environmental impact of nuclear technology on the environment through fuel development. The company said research and development costs were consistent through the first quarter of Denison Mines Corp.
It was founded in and is placed eighth on our list of 10 best uranium stocks to buy now. The company is famous for uranium mining in the Blind River and Elliot Lake, but has recently expanded into other areas. It was formerly known as Uranium Corporation but changed to Denison Mines in On April 14, Denison Mines Corp. The firm is working on the project with the help of operator Orano Canada.
Energy Fuels Inc. It is ranked seventh on our list of 10 best uranium stocks to buy now. Energy Fuels is the leading US-based producer of uranium and vanadium. The company has also expanded in recent years, emerging as a player in the commercial rare earth business.
The core business of the firm remains the extraction, recovery, exploration, and sale of uranium. On May 13, Energy Fuels Inc. Uranium is usually found in porous sedimentary rocks such as sandstones, arkoses, or conglomerates, but some deposits are also associated with igneous and metamorphic rocks.
Contact: Robert Gregory Ext. Wyoming State Geological Survey P. We use cookies to provide the best experience for you. To find out more check our cookies and privacy policy. Investment funds are shaping the uranium spot market leading to an unprecedented level of demand. How those funds will affect the availability of secondary supplies of uranium to consumers remains to be seen, and the spot market should not be seen as a reliable source for significant purchases of uranium ore in the long term, according to speakers and panellists at World Nuclear Association Annual Symposium These trends were highlighted in a panel discussion following the launch of the latest edition of World Nuclear Association's Nuclear Fuel Report on 8 September and also by Kazatomprom Chief Operating Officer Askar Batyrbayev in a high-level session the next day.
Matt Lichtenwald, manager, market research at Cameco, identified Sprott as a main factor in the "run" experienced by the uranium price over recent weeks. The constant "bid pressure" resulting from Sprott's activity is something that the uranium market has not previously experienced, and will help with price discovery by giving investors a broader view of both the supply and demand side of the market, he said.
It is a metal approximately as common as tin or zinc, and it is a constituent of most rocks and even of the sea. This means that it needs to be in a mineral form that can easily be dissolved by sulfuric acid or sodium carbonate leaching. Total world resources of uranium, as with any other mineral or metal, are not known exactly.
The only meaningful measure of long-term security of supply is the known reserves in the ground capable of being mined. An orebody is, by definition, an occurrence of mineralisation from which the metal is economically recoverable. Orebodies, and thus measured resources — the amount known to be economically recoverable from orebodies — are therefore relative to both costs of extraction and market prices.
For example, at present neither the oceans nor any granites are orebodies, but conceivably either could become so if prices were to rise sufficiently. Thus, any predictions of the future availability of any mineral, including uranium, which are based on current cost and price data, as well as current geological knowledge, are likely to prove extremely conservative. Factors affecting the supply of resources are discussed further and illustrated in Appendix 2.
Uranium has been successfully mined since the s. Historical uranium production is generally well known, though uncertainties remain about the amount mined in the Soviet Union between and Table 3 summarises historical production. World Nuclear Association has estimated production in countries where data is unavailable. While this capacity is being run more productively, with higher capacity factors and reactor power levels, the uranium fuel requirement is increasing, but not necessarily at the same rate.
The factors increasing fuel demand are offset by a trend for higher burn-up of fuel and other efficiencies, so demand is steady. Over the years to the electricity generated by nuclear power increased 3.
The world's present measured resources of uranium 6. This represents a higher level of assured resources than is normal for most minerals. Further exploration and higher prices will certainly, on the basis of present geological knowledge, yield further resources as present ones are used up.
Reducing the tails assay in enrichment reduces the amount of natural uranium required for a given amount of fuel. Reprocessing of used fuel from conventional light water reactors also utilises present resources more efficiently, by a factor of about 1. The corresponding U 3 O 8 figures are tonnes and tonnes. Note that these figures are generalisations across the industry and across many different reactor types. These various secondary sources make uranium unique among energy minerals.
The most obvious secondary source is civil stockpiles held by utilities and governments. The amount held here is difficult to quantify, due to commercial confidentiality. These reserves are expected to be maintained at a fairly high level to provide energy security for utilities and governments.
Military warheads have been an important source of nuclear fuel since Under the programme, enough bomb-grade material for 20, nuclear warheads was eliminated.
For more information, see information page on Military warheads as a source of nuclear fuel. Recycled uranium and plutonium is another source, and currently saves about tU per year of primary supply, depending on whether just the plutonium or also the uranium is considered.
For more information, see information page on Processing of Used Nuclear Fuel. Re-enrichment of depleted uranium DU, enrichment tails is another secondary source. There is about 1. Non-nuclear uses of DU are very minor relative to annual arisings of over 40, tU per year.
This leaves most DU available for mixing with recycled plutonium on MOX fuel or as a future fuel resource for fast neutron reactors. However, some DU that has relatively high assay can be fed through under-utilised enrichment plants to produce natural uranium equivalent, or even enriched uranium ready for fuel fabrication. Russian enrichment plants have treated , tonnes per year of DU assaying over 0.
This Russian programme treating Western tails has now finished, but a new US one is expected to start when surplus capacity is available, treating about , tonnes of old DU assaying 0. Underfeeding at enrichment plants is a significant source of secondary supply, especially since the Fukushima accident reduced enrichment demand for several years. There have been three major initiatives to set up international reserves of enriched fuel, two of them multilateral ones, with fuel to be available under International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA auspices despite any political interruptions which might affect countries needing them.
The third is under US auspices, and also to meet needs arising from supply disruptions. This Russian LEU reserve was established a year later and comprises tonnes of low-enriched uranium as UF 6 , enriched 2. It is fully funded by Russia, held under safeguards, and the fuel will be made available to IAEA at market rates, using a formula based on spot prices.
According to international norms, such a 'fuel bank' must be located in a country with no nuclear weapons and be fully open to IAEA inspectors. The fuel bank will be a potential supply of 90 tonnes LEU as UF 6 for the production of fuel assemblies for nuclear power plants. A formal agreement with Kazakhstan to establish the legal framework was signed in August. A transit agreement with Russia for shipping LEU was also approved. The facility was formally opened at the end of August In September , the IAEA announced that the facility would be operational in , and in November it awarded contracts to Orano and Kazatomprom to supply it.
It comprises up to 60 full containers of the 30B type or later versions. Type 30B cylinders each hold 2. The IAEA bears the costs of the purchase and delivery import-export of LEU, the purchase of equipment and its operation, technical resources and other goods and services required.
Kazakhstan will meet the costs of LEU storage, including payment of electricity, heating, office space and staff costs. The agreement allows for the possible transfer of the LEU fuel bank to another site from the Ulba Metallurgical Plant, and it has a ten-year duration with automatic renewal at the end of this period.
In the US government announced plans for the establishment of a mechanism to ensure fuel supply for use in commercial reactors in foreign countries where there has been supply disruption. The fuel would come from downblending At that point most of the downblending of the HEU had been completed, and the scheme was ready to operate. The AFS comprises tonnes of low-enriched uranium with another 60t from downblending being sold on the market to pay for the work. Additionally, the USA has completed the process of downblending another The t amount is equivalent to about six reloads for a MWe reactor.
In addition to the 6. The main unconventional resource for uranium is rock phosphate , or phosphorite, and some 20, tU has been recovered as a by-product of agricultural phosphate production to the s, but it then became uneconomic. Estimates of the amount available range from 9 to 22 million tonnes of uranium, though the edition of the Red Book tabulates only about 8 million tonnes.
World phosphorous pentoxide P 2 O 5 production capacity from about Mt of rock phosphate is about 50 million tonnes per year. Morocco has by far the largest known resources of uranium in phosphate rock. Rare earth element REE deposits are another such unconventional resource. REEs have unique catalytic, metallurgical, nuclear, electrical, magnetic and luminescent properties, and play a critical role in the application of many modern technologies, including magnetic resonance imaging MRI machines, satellites, batteries, LED screens and solar panels.
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