Uranium price to recover next year on shortage, Trump policy, Sprott CEO says
The heavy metal’s spot price fell to $76.56 per lb. this week, down from a 17-year high of $106 per lb. in February.
An underground uranium and copper mine in Arizona looks more valuable thanks to new drill results released today.
Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE MKT: UUUU; TSX: EFR), the largest conventional uranium producer in the United States, said it intercepted additional high-grade areas of uranium mineralization at its Canyon Mine. The new intercepts, which expand a mineralized zone, included 28.5 feet of mineralization with an average grade of 2.41% U3O8, at the fully permitted mine in northern Arizona.
Drilling from 1,230 feet below surface started in November, and so far 5,922 feet have been drilled out of 35 drill holes, Energy Fuels said in a press release, adding it plans to drill another 11,000 feet in the New Year. The company started shaft sinking a year ago at Canyon, which is the highest-grade uranium mine in the US.
Today’s drill results follow on high-grade copper results published in October, which according to uranium analyst Rob Chang should bring down the costs of the operation.
The Canyon uranium project is slated to begin production next year, with ore to be shipped to Energy Fuels’s White Mesa mill for processing. It holds inferred resources equivalent to 1.6 million pounds of uranium, at an average grade of .98 % U3O8.
The Toronto-based company is an uranium and vanadium exploration and mine development firm with projects located in the states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming and New Mexico.
