Justin Huhn, Founder and Publisher of the Uranium Insider, joins me for another comprehensive macro update on the supply and demand fundamentals for uranium and the nuclear fuel sector, how the longer-term contracting cycle is setting up, and then what he is watching and how he is positioning in the uranium equities.
We start off reviewing the growth in both new nuclear reactors and life extensions on existing reactors in the recent past and looking forward outpacing expectations in China, the UAE, France, other countries in Europe, and even in the US. We also get into demand and supply fundamentals for the nuclear fuel cycle for enriched uranium fuel and enrichment & processing bottlenecks for end users and utility companies due to the recent sanctions placed on Russian supplies. However these sanctions, in tandem with the money allocated in the Inflation Reduction Act for growing domestic processing and enrichment capabilities, along with more U308 supplies from domestic uranium mining companies will be a net longer-term positive after the shorter term hurtles.
Justin then breaks down what we know about the past and forward guidance for largest producers like Kazatomprom, Cameco (CCO.V) (CCJ), and Orano. He also reviews the US-based producers that are projected to add in more production over the next few years like enCore Energy (EU.V) (EU), Energy Fuels (EFR.TO) (UUUU), Ur-Energy (URE.TO) (URG), Peninsula Energy (PEN.AX) (PENMF), and Uranium Energy Corp (UEC). We then get into the concept of what percentage of production these uranium producers should be committed to longer-term off-take contracts, between the utilities and the uranium mining companies, for the overall health of the uranium companies if they have locked in much higher prices for uranium sales contracts years into the future. This also lead into a review of the recent transaction from NexGen Energy (NXE) where they are purchasing 2.7 million pounds of uranium to demonstrate to any potential off-take partners more assurity of future supply until they could get Arrow into production.
We wrap up by getting Justin’s thoughts on where we are with the moves in uranium exploration stocks, operating in both the US and in Canada, and where the biggest opportunities are from his vantage point. He feels the discovery that F3 Uranium Corp. (FUU.V) (OTCQB: FUUFF) made last year ignited a whole new wave of exploration in the Athabasca Basin. This leads into a discussion of whether we’ll see some of the higher-valued more advanced companies that are either near production or going back into production begin to start acquiring more of the earlier- stage uranium explorers and developers.
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