Rio Tinto holds tender with legacy inventory from Argyle and Diavik mines
Bids came in from 12 regions across Australia, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, the Middle East, Singapore and North America, Rio said.
Shares of Australian uranium miners surged for a second day on Tuesday after Microsoft signed a deal to help resurrect a US nuclear power plant, fuelling hopes that growing demand from big tech firms for green power could fuel demand for nuclear energy.
A deal between US-based utility Constellation Energy and Microsoft to revive a unit of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania triggered trades on heavily shorted Australia-listed uranium stocks, said Guy Keller, a portfolio manager with Tribeca Investment Partners.
Big Tech’s growing love affair with technology like artificial intelligence is resulting in a surge in electricity demand to power data centres, with relatively clean energy sources like nuclear power becoming more popular.
Perth-based Boss Energy, which is targeting uranium output of 850,000 pounds in fiscal year 2025, soared as much as 11.6% on Tuesday on top of its 8% gain in the previous day.
Paladin Energy, Australia’s biggest pure-play uranium miner in terms of market value, advanced 9.5% after a roughly 5% gain in the previous session, while Deep Yellow jumped 8.5% to scale a more than seven-week high.
All the three stocks were the among top five gainers in the ASX 200 benchmark index on Tuesday.
Paladin is Australia’s fourth most heavily shorted stock, according to data provider Shortman, while Boss Energy is ninth and Deep Yellow is thirteenth.
“There has… been fresh buying interest in the sector that had been waiting for a catalyst,” said Keller, adding that seasonal buying would likely keep the sector buoyant for the remainder of the calendar year.
Demand expectations for uranium have climbed after more than 20 nations vowed to triple nuclear capacity by 2050 at the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai late last year.
“The amount of annual uranium demand could lift to over 500 million pounds against currently mined supply of around 155 million pounds,” said Regan Burrows, a resource analyst at Bell Potter Securities.
(By Sameer Manekar and Melanie Burton; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
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