3 Uranium Stock Picks from Thom Calandra

Thom Calandra of The Calandra Report moderated a uranium panel on the Athabasca Basin at this year’s Vancouver Resource Investment Conference (VRIC), and after it was over the Investing News Network (INN) caught up with him to get the highlights.
In the video above, Calandra, who is not only bullish on uranium but also on copper and zinc, explains why the Athabasca Basin is important to the uranium market and what investors should be watching for when choosing where to invest. “It depends on what your flavor is, how much risk you can take,” he says. He also lists a few of his favorite uranium stocks in the Athabasca Basin and elsewhere.
Watch the video above for the full interview or read the transcript below. You can also click here to view the full list of INN’s VRIC interviews.

INN: One of your panels today was on the Athabasca Basin, where there are lots of uranium companies. What were the key takeaways for you, and did you learn anything that surprised you?

TC: I’ve been learning a lot about uranium in the past two, two and a half years. The Athabasca Basin … is thought of generally [as] east and west. The eastern Athabasca Basin is more where the infrastructure is, the actual mines, the production, mills, refineries. The west is much more of a pure exploration story. Not always, but sometimes.
And then you have a number of names. Now, as the folks from Denison Mines (TSX:DML,NYSEMKT:DNN), CanAlaska Uranium (TSXV:CVV), Skyharbour Resources (TSXV:SYH), Fission Uranium (TSXV:FCU) and Uranium Energy (NYSEMKT:UEC) have explained to me time and time again … when you look at the Athabasca Basin there’s no doubt you have the highest grades in the world. I didn’t even mention … NexGen Energy (TSX:NXE). NexGen Energy is yet another of those very successful companies that have thrown a light on the uranium market because of their extreme high grades. Fission Uranium, Fission 3.0 (TSXV:FUU), NexGen Energy and so on — [have] grades that are as high as 10, 12 percent. As we know, just 1 percent uranium is equal to 20 grams a tonne of gold, 1,500 grams a tonne of silver, and it can go up or down the chart — copper, graphite, platinum, palladium. So you have highly … rich deposits that could theoretically be worth a lot of money.
Now for investors, what does that mean? Well, let’s face it. Not all of these properties will get made into mines. Everybody has a different opinion on the different types of deposits. In the eastern Athabasca, in the western Athabasca, whether they’re non-conformities … or whether they’re basement deep down, or whether they are in or above shallow sandstone as Fission Uranium and Fission 3.0 are searching for. It depends on what your flavor is, how much risk you can take.

I do know that many of the companies in Australia have gotten just crushed because they’re not in the Athabasca Basin. Whereas thank goodness for the lure, the high grades of the basin, the infrastructure that’s at a number of these mines and some of these companies. Even Cameco (TSX:CCO,NYSE:CCJ), although Cameco is under … a lot of pressure. You have companies that are doing pretty well on the exploration, and on the property development and the prospect generating.
There are a couple of companies in the US who are doing okay, like Uranium Energy in South Texas, of course. Right now I only own three companies … CanAlaska Uranium of course, a prospect generator [and] Fission 3.0, pure exploration. I’m taking a look at a few others, including Denison Mines and Skyharbour Resources. I also own a small company called Virginia Energy (TSXV:VUI) in my home country of the US. Now, Virginia Energy is obscure, but it trades in Toronto. They’ve been going back and forth with the State of Virginia — lawsuits, courts, the Supreme Court probably soon. Maybe an administration led by the Donald will fix that, I don’t know. It’s a good lobby to have, but we will see.

Don’t forget to follow us @INN_Resource for real-time news updates!
Securities Disclosure: I, Priscila Barrera, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in contributed article. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.