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-focused investors in North America are plowing into miners of the nuclear reactor fuel after the world’s largest producer, Kazatomprom released guidance that fell short of market expectations.
Shares in North American miners are rising in premarket trading after Kazakhstan’s state-owned uranium miner said overnight it would produce 25,000 tons to 26,500 tons of uranium next year. Analysts say that’s higher than 2024 levels, but notably below its subsoil use agreements in the Central Asian country.
“This brings the entire production curve guidance down for several years,” Segra Capital Management founder Adam Rodman said Friday, calling the outlook a “miss” and saying he’ll be buying North American uranium miners as a result. Segra Capital is already a shareholder in NexGen Energy Ltd. and other miners.
Already, US-listed uranium mining equities are surging — Cameco Corp.’s shares jumped as much as 7.2% in premarket trading. NexGen Energy’s US shares surged to nearly 13% at one point. Uranium Energy Corp. approached 10%.
Rodamn said that “most importantly,” Kazatomprom’s guidance was so low that he expects the miner will need to apply for regulatory permission to downgrade its production for the year at several key sites.
Kazatomprom’s production guidance suggests a 7.1 million pound “ramp up” for the company, but it will still leave the uranium market in a deficit, said BMO Capital Markets analyst Alexander Pearce.
(By Geoffrey Morgan)
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