- IAEA report notes that an adequate supply of uranium will be vital as nuclear power continues to provide an important source of the world’s carbon-free energy
- “Undiscovered resources must be converted to discoveries, which must then be developed in a timely matter,” report concludes
- UEC is focused on expanding uranium production while developing a pipeline of low-cost resources for major ongoing growth
A recent analysis of the world’s uranium supply by the International Atomic Energy Agency (“IAEA”) states that nuclear power will be a primary source of energy for the world in the coming years — assuming an adequate supply of uranium can be maintained (https://ibn.fm/ra0Vo). That report is great news for Uranium Energy (NYSE American: UEC), a U.S.-based uranium mining and exploration company that controls one of the country’s largest historical uranium exploration and development databases. UEC leverages this invaluable data to target and acquire properties that have been subject to exploration and development by senior energy firms in the past and that are ideally positioned to become major supplies of uranium in the coming years.
“Nuclear power is expected to be an important part of the worldwide energy mix at least through the next 50 years and by most projections well beyond,” the IAEA study reported. “That is, of course, provided an adequate supply of uranium is available to sustain the nominal growth rate for nuclear power of 1 to 3% per year that is projected by many analysts. The importance that a reliable supply will have on the future of nuclear power led the IAEA to undertake a study of uranium supply-demand relationships through 2050.”
The detailed report evaluates the adequacy of the world’s uranium supply to meet demand. The paper analyzes the supply of uranium given different levels of demand, ultimately concluding that “by 2025, primary supply sources are expected to cover 94% of requirements, and the role of Market-based Production is projected to grow from satisfying 45% of requirements in 2000 to 86% in 2025. Known resources are adequate to cover about 96% of Market-based Production requirements in the middle demand case. However, because of resource distribution and production capacity limitations, not all resources will have been depleted by 2050, leaving a cumulative deficit between production and requirements of nearly 850 000 t U. This deficit expands 3.5-fold in the high demand case. Even with the addition of undiscovered EAR-II, there will still be a deficit between production and Market-based Production requirements of about 307 000 t U in the middle demand case.
“The challenge for the uranium production industry will be to discover large, relatively low-cost deposits to fill the projected deficits,” the study concludes. “Plentiful secondary supply has depressed uranium market prices, which in turn has diminished incentive to undertake the exploration programmes needed to offset these deficits. . . . There is not a true shortage of potential resources. However, these undiscovered resources must be converted to discoveries, which must then be developed in a timely manner to ensure that their resources can be fully utilized to offset the projected deficits.”
UEC is focused on doing just that. The company’s mission — to expand uranium production using low-cost in-situ recovery (“ISR”) while developing a pipeline of resources for major ongoing growth — dovetails perfectly with the report from the IAEA noting the need for promising projects to be fully developed. The U.S. Geological Survey recently reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency that South Texas represents one of the world’s most prospective regions for new uranium discovery and development. Uranium Energy Corp has a strong presence in South Texas with the infrastructure in place to capitalize on the region for further exploration, development and production.
UEC discovered the Burke Hollow project in South Texas, and in a recent press release, their vice president of Resource Development stated, “…the extensive, lightly-explored trend extensions and remaining undrilled areas of the project have the potential to be the largest Goliad Formation deposit discovered to date in the South Texas Uranium Belt.” Uranium Energy Corp has the largest resource base of fully permitted projects in Texas and Wyoming of any U.S.-based producer. The company is well positioned to supply the U.S. strategic Uranium Reserve as well as utility demand. UEC also has additional U.S. projects in their pipeline in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and other projects in Canada and Paraguay. UEC is committed to providing low-cost, environmentally friendly uranium for the safe, highly reliable carbon-free energy that nuclear power provides.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.UraniumEnergy.com.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to UEC are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/UEC
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