Uranium News: India Criticized, Cigar Lake Starts Production

The uranium spot price remained fairly flat this week, clocking in at $37.25 per pound. However, plenty of uranium news surfaced during the period.
One key event was General Electric’s (NYSE:GE) announcement that it won’t risk building a nuclear power plant in India. According to CEO Jeffery Immelt, current Indian laws makes suppliers liable for nuclear accidents; he told Bloomberg that he believes the laws need to be consistent with the global approach.
On a similar front, the Australia-India nuclear agreement faced criticism this week, with former Australian diplomat John Carlson telling The Straits Times that the deal could allow material to be moved between civilian and military facilities.
“Australia could supply uranium to India which India would then be totally at liberty to send to an unsafeguarded facility,” the news outlet quotes him as saying. “It is a fundamental weakness which could have been overcome by Australia saying material can be sent only to facilities that are under permanent IAEA safeguards.”
The deal, which received conditional approval from an Australian treaties committee earlier this month, could generate $1.75 billion for Australia and would be especially lucrative for rural and remote areas.

Uranium news: project progress

In other uranium news, production officially began this week at the Cigar Lake uranium mine and McClean Lake mill. The mine, which is operated and 50-percent owned by Cameco (TSX:CCO,NYSE:CCJ), is the world’s second-largest high-grade uranium mine. It has proven plus probable reserves of 234.9 million pounds of U3O8.
Cameco also released the public environmental review for its proposed Yeelirrie uranium mine in West Australia; it is expected to create 225 jobs. The company bought the mine from BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP,NYSE:BHP,LSE:BLT) in 2012 for US$452 million, and has been reviewing over 10,000 recent and historical drill holes by BHP and the project’s former owner, Western Mining. Public discussion on the review will be open until December.
Kibo Mining (LSE:KIBO) also reported progress this week, beginning work at its Pinewood uranium project in Tanzania. The company said that, along with its joint venture partner Metal Tiger (LSE:MTR), it will initially focus on updating a 2009 study and report on regional prospectivity and exploration potential in Tanzania.
Ur-Energy (TSX:URE,NYSEMKT:URG) said this week that it plans to expand its Lost Creek mine in Wyoming to more than double its current size. Lost Creek is currently one of the largest uranium mines in the state, capturing 596,000 pounds of U3O8 in 2014. The company’s vice president of operations, Steve Hatten, told The Denver Post that he expects the expanded portion of the mine to go into operation in a year or two.

Uranium news: drill and assay results

Fission Uranium (TSX:FCU) can always be counted on to release results from its ever-growing Patterson Lake South (PLS) property on a regular basis. This week, the company reported results from 17 regional exploration holes at PLS; they tested the Patterson Lake and Forest Lake corridors. One hole in each corridor encountered anomalous radioactivity, with the Forest Lake hole intersecting radioactivity of up to 360 cps and the Patterson Lake hole hitting 520 cps.
Earlier in the week, Fission reported assay results from 14 angled holes that were drilled on various zones at PLS — four on the R600W zone, eight on the R780E zone and two on the 1620E zone. The company announced that 13 of the 14 holes were mineralized.
NexGen Energy (TSXV:NXE) also saw positive results this week, revealing radioactivity results from the ongoing summer drill program at its Rook 1 property. Of particular interest is hole AR-15-58c1. It includes a new zone of visible high-grade mineralization that has now been named the A4 shear.
Upon hearing the news, David Talbot, senior analyst at Dundee Capital Markets, said, “[t]he addition of the A4 Shear is very positive, but not surprising. We are likely seeing a series of regional shears that have developed extensional shear gashes along parts of their strike extent … higher grades and thicker mineralization is likely taking advantage of room that was made during structural movements in the surrounding rocks.”

Uranium news: M&A activity

A fair amount of M&A activity has taken place in the uranium space in 2015. Last Friday, Western Uranium (CSE:WUC) completed its takeover of Black Range Minerals. The agreement saw Western acquire all of the issued shares of Black Range, with Black Range shareholders being issued shares of Western on a one-for-750 basis.
Uranium Resources (NASDAQ:URRE) is one step closer to completing its merger after its shareholders voted in favor of its business combination with Anatolia Energy (ASX:AEK) at the company’s annual meeting. The deal will create a larger, diversified uranium development and exploration business, and upon completion, Uranium Resources will have two 800,000-pound-per-year uranium processing plants in South Texas and the potential for near-term production from the Temrezli project in Turkey.
 
Securities Disclosure: I, Kristen Moran, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.