{"id":85666,"date":"2020-03-31T12:21:19","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T00:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fnarena.com\/?p=85666"},"modified":"2020-03-31T12:21:19","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T01:21:19","slug":"uranium-week-prices-surge-on-mine-shutdowns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/2020\/03\/31\/uranium-week-prices-surge-on-mine-shutdowns\/","title":{"rendered":"Uranium Week: Prices Surge On Mine Shutdowns"},"content":{"rendered":"

The spot uranium price leapt 13% last week as around the globe miners announced temporary shutdowns for the sake of worker safety.<\/em><\/p>\n

-Cameco shuts up shop
-Other uranium miners\/developers follow suit
-Worker safety paramount<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Greg Peel<\/p>\n

On a directive from the Canadian and Saskatchewan governments, Cameco last week shut down its 50% owned Cigar Lake uranium mine – the world’s largest operating mine.<\/p>\n

While no cases of the virus have been reported at Cigar Lake, the potential risk to local remote communities from a large fly-in, fly-out workforce was considered too great.<\/p>\n

The mine will be put into care & maintenance for an initial four weeks, at which point the situation will be reassessed.<\/p>\n

In order to satisfy delivery contracts, Cameco will purchase lost production in the spot market.<\/p>\n

Last week saw a surge in uranium spot market activity as a result, with 4mlbs U3O8 equivalent changing hands, industry consultant TradeTech reports. TradeTech’s weekly spot price indicator leapt US$3.05, or 13%, to US$27.00\/lb.<\/p>\n

While there was some utility buying amidst the spree last week, traders and producers were the main protagonists, TradeTech reports.<\/p>\n

Term markets also saw price rises as delivery contracts were settled, although TradeTech’s term price indicators remain at US$28.25\/lb (mid) and US$33.00\/lb (long).<\/p>\n

Widespread<\/u><\/p>\n

Cameco has been buying uranium in the spot market for a couple of years, since shuttering its McArthur River mine and Key Lake mill, also in Saskatchewan, due to low uranium prices.<\/p>\n

Producer buying has at best underpinned uranium prices in that time, with a lack of utility buying leading to little upward movement. Many a mine across the globe has been placed in care & maintenance.<\/p>\n

But while low prices were behind those closures, the virus has now sparked another round. Cameco is not alone.<\/p>\n

In Namibia, the Rossing mine, now owned by China’s CNNC, will enter a period of “minimal mining operations”.<\/p>\n

Kazakhstan’s Kazatomprom had the week before issued a warning that the virus presented a risk to its remote sites, and now the Kazak government has locked down nearby cities, strongly advising workers to stay at home.<\/p>\n

BHP Group’s ((BHP)) massive Olympic Dam mine in South Australia is “polymetallic”, with copper the leading product, and uranium a significant by-product. BHP has implemented measures across its operation to reduce virus risk.<\/p>\n

Canada’s Denison Mines has announced a temporary suspension of activities related to the environmental assessment for its Wheeler River uranium project in Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n

Uranium Energy Corp has postponed plans to resume drilling at its Burke Hollow project in Texas.<\/p>\n

More Upside?<\/u><\/p>\n

Canaccord Genuity understands that after under-purchasing over the last five years, US utilities are now approaching less than three years of feed requirements held in inventory, with over 50% of supply to be re-contracted by 2023.<\/p>\n

Any further supply disruptions could potentially hasten sales contract negotiations with advanced developers.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Find out why FNArena subscribers like the service so much: "Your Feedback (Thank You)<\/a>" – Warning this story contains unashamedly positive feedback on the service provided.<\/em><\/p>\n

FNArena is proud about its track record and past achievements: Ten Years On<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The spot uranium price leapt 13% last week as around the globe miners announced temporary shutdowns for the sake of worker safety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":85670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85666"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}