Uranium Optimism

Uranium prices ‘are turning the corner’ – Canadian developer.

- Ilan Solomons

Despite uranium prices remaining weak, Canadian mineral resources company GoviEx Uranium CEO Daniel Major believes that they are turning the corner and he is optimistic about more price improvements.

In an interview with Mining Weekly earlier this month, he acknowledged that the past few years had been “extraordinarily difficult” for the uranium industry and 2016 was no exception.

He recounted that the uranium spot price had fallen from $34.70/lb of triuranium octoxide (U3O8) in January to $18/lb in November, decreasing nearly 50%. Major elaborated that this price decline was against a background of sizeable inventories, covered contracts and excess enrichment capacity. “In December, however, we started to see the first signs of the long-expected uranium price recovery.”

He highlighted that the spot price closed the year at $20.44/lb of U3O8 – a 20% increase on last year’s low. “Producers cannot make money at the current uranium spot price and we, thus, expect long-term demand for uranium to grow, with demand forecast to rise from about 180-million pounds of U3O8 in 2016 to between 220-million pounds and 260-million pounds by 2025 based on the lower and upper case scenarios.”