Many established nuclear power nations such as China, India, Japan, Great Britain, France and the USA are working on restarting, extending the service life or building new nuclear reactors, which are the only energy source that can constantly supply emission-free electricity at the same high level. Other nations that did not previously have nuclear power plants have started building new ones. Although the focus is currently still on the well-known, large nuclear reactors, in the future it will be much smaller reactors – so-called “Small Modular Reactors”, in short: SMRs, which can be manufactured in a modular way in factories and installed at almost any desired location will cause an explosion in demand for the raw material that is essential for the production of energy by means of nuclear fission: uranium.
How the expected high demand (increase) for the important fuel uranium will be covered is still in the stars. For example, a supply of around 140 million pounds of triuranium octoxide (U3O8) faced a demand for 190 million pounds of U3O8. Although the uranium sector still has additional production capacities in order to be able to satisfy an additional increase in demand of 3 to 4% per year that is to be expected – according to the World Nuclear Association – a large number of new mines are required. However, these require an average of at least 10 years from the discovery of a deposit to approval and construction to the start of production.
The global fleet of nuclear power plants is heading for a new record – both in terms of the number of reactors and the net electrical output.
Since the beginning of 2023, 4 new nuclear power reactors have been connected to the grid worldwide. At the same time, construction began on 3 new reactors. 33 nations are currently operating 437 reactors with a total net electrical output of around 391.4 gigawatts.
The blatant undersupply of uranium, plus other problems, for example the fact that Russia enriches a good 45% of global uranium production and will now fail as a supplier for many countries, opens up excellent opportunities for interested shareholders to participate in the uranium market.
For example the shares of Uranium Energy Corp. It is a US-based uranium mining and exploration company. Uranium Energy has hub and spoke operations in South Texas and Wyoming that guarantee uranium production within a few months. In addition, the Company controls a pipeline of uranium projects in Canada and Paraguay and one of the highest grade and largest undeveloped ferrotitanium deposits in the world, located in Paraguay. Recently, it was awarded a contract to supply physical uranium to the US government. Preparations are currently underway for the recommissioning of two hub-and-spoke operations.
Anfield Energy is a Canadian uranium-vanadium development company aiming to become a uranium and vanadium producer in the United States. The near term strategy is focused on the advanced stage uranium and vanadium projects in Utah and Colorado – Velvet Wood, West Slope and Slick Rock – backed by its own Shootaring Canyon mill, one of only three licensed conventional mills in the United States. The longer term production strategy includes the acquisition of ancillary assets with the potential to inject additional uranium and vanadium resources into the Shootaring Canyon mill. With this, the company intends to quickly establish uranium production of at least 1 million pounds of U3O8 plus vanadium per year.
Blue Sky Uranium is a Canadian uranium development company which owns several large uranium projects in the Rio Negro and Chubut provinces of Argentina, which in all likelihood can be exploited relatively easily in low-cost open pit operations. This gives you an enormous cost advantage, which not only promises faster mining, but also high margins. The aim is to supply Argentina’s nuclear power plants with uranium from their own country. Blue Sky Uranium has already proven a large resource for one of three sub-projects and presented a positive economic analysis.
Consolidated Uranium is a Canadian exploration and development company focused on diversified project consolidation of prospective uranium projects worldwide. The company acquires potentially top-class projects according to a strict set of criteria. This includes the geographic location, the level of development and the type of deposit. There is particular focus on projects that each have a significant past spend and attractive characteristics for development. In addition, they must meet attractive development characteristics as well as staggered and progressive acquisition conditions. In this way, it was possible to put together a portfolio of several projects with high potential within a short period of time, which would enable rapid production start-up.
Latitude Uranium is a Canadian mining development company focused on the exploration and development of uranium projects in the Canadian provinces of Labrador and Nunavut. The Company has acquired several projects there which have discovered numerous targets of uranium, copper and IOCG-style mineralization. Using machine learning (ML), the Company has identified numerous potential high-grade uranium areas which are currently being further explored for corresponding occurrences.
Purepoint Uranium is a Canadian mining exploration and development company focused on the development of high quality uranium projects in Canada’s Athabasca Basin, the world‘s richest uranium region. The Company is taking an aggressive, systematic approach to identifying key projects with strong indicators and historical significance in the Basin. The Company’s goal is to increase value to stakeholders through the development of properties with well-defined targets and strong, high-grade uranium potential. Based in the Athabasca Basin since 2002, Purepoint’s leadership team is an independent, highly qualified group of professionals with extensive provincial and regulatory relationships and decades of experience in the Athabasca Basin. Purepoint Uranium works with two of the largest uranium producers in the world, Cameco Corporation and Orano Resources Canada.
Skyharbour Resources is a uranium exploration company that has acquired world-class exploration projects totaling over 400,000 hectares located throughout the Athabasca Basin at attractive valuations. The Company owns 100% of the Moore Uranium Project, which hosts the high-grade Maverick Zone. While the Company is focused on its core strategy as a discovery-driven explorer, it also applies the prospect generator model to advance and fund exploration on its other projects in the Basin and has several strategic partners (including Orano Canada, Azincourt Energy, Valor Resources, Basin Uranium, Tisdale Clean Energy and Medaro Mining) who have consistently reported good exploration progress.
Uranium Royalty Corp. is a Canadian company focused on strategic investments in uranium interests, including royalties, streams, debt and equity in uranium companies, and physical uranium deals. This makes Uranium Royalty the first company to apply the successful royalty and streaming business model exclusively to the uranium sector. The portfolio includes interests in more than 20 development, advanced stage, permitted and producing uranium projects in multiple jurisdictions. The portfolio also includes a large inventory of physical uranium, which could be monetized immediately.
This is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any stock. Everyone has to know for themselves what kind of risk they can take and dare to take. Everyone is responsible for themselves.
Attention conflict of interest: I own the shares discussed in the article or they are included in the SRC Mining Special Situations certificate.
Good luck and warm greetings from Switzerland.
Yours, Tim Rodel
Swiss Resource Capital AG
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