Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
Uranium Energy (NYSE: UEC) shares rose on Thursday after the company received Wyoming state approval to increase the licensed production capacity at its Irigaray site to 4 million lb. of uranium oxides (U₃O₈) annually, up from the previous capacity of 2.5 million lb.
The Irigaray processing plant is central to the company’s hub-and-spoke production strategy in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, supporting four fully permitted uranium in-situ recovery (ISR) satellite projects in the area.
Uranium Energy’s Powder River Basin portfolio has an estimated aggregate resource of 62.3 million lb. of U₃O₈ in the measured and indicated category, with an additional 10.7 million lb. in the inferred category.
“The extraordinary growth in nuclear power in the US is creating a new demand paradigm for uranium supply from stable domestic sources,” Uranium Energy CEO Amir Adnani said in a news release.
“Big tech companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle are making significant financial commitments to nuclear energy to provide the electricity needed to power data centers. This approach, investing directly in nuclear generation infrastructure, reflects the realization that nuclear energy offers safe, highly reliable, economic and clean energy,” Adnani added.
By 12 pm EDT, shares of Uranium Energy were up 6% in New York, giving the company a market cap of $3.47 billion.
In September, Uranium Energy reached a $175 million deal to buy Rio Tinto’s (ASX, LON, NYSE: RIO) assets in Wyoming, which include the fully licensed Sweetwater plant and a portfolio of uranium mining projects.
The Sweetwater plant is a 3,000-tonne-per-day conventional processing mill with a licensed capacity of 4.1 million lb. of U₃O₈. The company estimates the transaction will add about 175 million lb. of historic resources.
In addition to the two hub-and-spoke platforms in Wyoming, the company also operates an ISR production platform in South Texas centered around the Hobson central processing plant, with a licensed capacity of 4 million lb. of U₃O₈ annually.
