Year-to-date gain: 32.57 percent; market capitalization: C$15.03 billion; current share price: C$38.59

Cameco is a top global uranium miner with active operations in Canada and Kazakhstan and suspended mines in the US. Its Canadian mines are the Cigar Lake joint venture, the world’s highest-grade uranium mine; and McArthur River/Key Lake, the world’s largest high-grade uranium mine and mill. Both are in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin.

Cameco’s Inkai mine in Kazakhstan is a 40/60 joint venture between it and national operator Kazatomprom. Although McArthur River/Key Lake is currently under care and maintenance, Cameco announced it will slowly be bringing the operation back online, and it expects it to be in operation before the end of the year.

The company’s year-to-date share price high came early in Q2, when it reached C$39.68 on April 13. In May, Cameco and Orano Canada, the majority owners of the Cigar Lake joint venture, bought out Idemitsu Canada Resources' 7.875 percent participating interest in the mine. Cameco’s ownership stake is now 54.547 percent. Cameco released its 2021 environmental, social and governance report in July. According to the report, the company had a record-setting safety performance for the fifth year in a row, and is one of Canada’s top employers of Indigenous people.

Most recently, Cameco released its Q2 results, saying net sales for the quarter hit C$84 million and its share of production reached 2.8 million pounds. The company included an update on McArthur River/Key Lake, which has seen some delays, but should reach production in Q4. Production of 2 million pounds is expected from the site this year. Although the company’s share price had fallen since its earlier highs, a spike in the uranium price in late August coincided with a similar spike for Cameco’s share price, which hit a Q3 high of C$39.52 on September 8.

Year-to-date gain: 16.13 percent; market capitalization: C$55.07 million; current share price: C$0.54

CanAlaska Uranium is a project generator that is advancing its West McArthur and Cree East projects. West McArthur is a uranium project near Cameco’s McArthur River; it is a joint venture with Cameco in which CanAlaska owns 70 percent. Cree East is 100 percent owned by CanAlaska and contains extensive uranium-bearing systems. In April, the company entered into option agreements with Basin Energy; the latter company can earn an 80 percent interest in CanAlaska’s Geikie and North Millennium projects and a 100 percent interest in CanAlaska’s Marshall project.

CanAlaska’s share price climbed in March alongside the uranium price, reaching its year-to-date high of C$0.72 on March 11. The company has been focusing on exploration at many of its properties so far in 2022.

In early March, CanAlaska began a drill program at its Manibridge nickel project in Manitoba, which the CEO said was timely due to nickel's price action; Phase 1 drilling saw high-grade nickel in all drill holes, and the company commenced a 10,000 meter Phase 2 drilling program in June. Additionally, the company announced the completion of a 2022 drilling program at the Waterbury South uranium project, which extended targets at the property. Lastly, a drill program at West McArthur discovered a new uranium zone, which has recently been shown to host high-grade uranium, including an interval of 3.5 percent U3O8 over 6 meters.

Year-to-date gain: 4 percent; market capitalization: C$401.05 million; current share price: C$1.82

Ur-Energy is a uranium miner with two primary projects. Its Lost Creek in-situ uranium recovery facility has been in production since 2013 and has produced 2.7 million pounds of U3O8 in that time. It also has the Shirley Basin project, which has received all necessary permits and is nearly construction ready.

The company’s share price also hit an early year-to-date high of C$2.37 on March 9, in sync with uranium’s spike. It reached those heights again on April 13, although it has since fallen, staying lower in much of Q2 and Q3.

In the company’s Q2 results, it shares updates on its projects, as well as its research and development. Most significantly, in early August, Ur-Energy entered into a multi-year sales agreement to supply uranium to a leading US nuclear utility company. Ur-Energy will deliver 200,000 pounds annually for a six year period to the utility company. Ur-Energy also shared in that release that it has entered a bid with the US Department of Energy to supply uranium towards the national stockpile. The company’s share price began moving upwards again in the weeks following this news.