Spot Uranium Prices Down; Aussie Investors Rejoice
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By Luke Brocki – Exclusive to Uranium Investing News and U3O8.biz.
Spot uranium prices fell for the first time in ten weeks, while investors in Western Australia celebrated significant gains after a new, pro-uranium state government took power.
Price publisher Tradetech has dropped its spot uranium price indicator by US$1.50 to US$63 a pound U3O8. Meanwhile, rival publisher Ux Consulting dropped its spot uranium indicator $2.50 to US$62.
According to Tradetech, the drops come as a result of sellers unable to attract buyers. The company says sellers have attempted to capitalize on the suspension of remediation efforts at Cameco’s Cigar Lake project, but renewed buying interest resulting from that news has since run dry. And, after a long price standstill, sellers are throwing in the towel and dropping prices in hopes of bridging the gap between willing buyers and willing sellers.
The spot uranium market saw three transactions last week, one of which involved uranium hexafluoride (UF6) and two of which dealt with utility buyers. Despite the drop in spot prices, Tradetech reports buying interest seems to be on the rise, with spot demand at about 2 million pounds U3O8 equivalent coming from producers, utilities, and financial groups. Just the same, current spot supply is plentiful and new spot supply continues to enter the market, which further weakens spot prices.
In Western Australia, the Labor Party is no longer in power, after being ousted by the Liberals in a state election on Monday. Toro Energy Ltd. and Energy & Minerals Australia Ltd. led gains in shares of Western Australian uranium explorers earlier this week, as that country’s entire uranium sector was boosted by the win of the Liberals, who have promised to allow uranium mining in the state.
Bloomberg reported the Liberals want to open the state to uranium miners such as Canada’s Cameco Corp., the world’s biggest producer, and BHP Billiton Ltd. Western Australia holds roughly 10% of the world’s known uranium reserves, with an estimated worth of about US$32 billion.
The business pages of Aussie newspaper The Australian stated uranium projects in Western Australia were well advanced by Toro, BHP Billiton, and Paladin. The latter was rated a buy; Paladin stock has softened, but the troubles at its Langer Heinrich deposit appear to be under control.
Kazakhstan is proposing the creation of an international uranium market to increase transparency of uranium prices. Mukhtar Dzhakiyev, president of Kazatomprom, that country’s national uranium producer, said he’s working to set up a uranium fund that would consist of uranium producers, consumers, and financial institutions, who would then trade share quotes serving as uranium market prices. Dzhakiyev said preliminary agreements had already been reached with Areva and Cameco, as well as Chinese and American nuclear power plants.
Finally, Canada’s Cameco Corp has resolved the leak problem at its Port Hope nuclear conversion plant in Ontario. Reuters reported the company hopes to restart the plant at a reduced rate within the next few days. Cameco expects total remediation costs at the facility to be between C$50 million and C$55 million. According to Reuters, about C$20 million of those costs will be expensed and the rest capitalized.
Tags: Australia, Cameco, paladin, uranium market, uranium mine, Uranium Ore, uranium prices, uranium spot price, Uranium Stocks, yellowcake
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September 18th, 2008 at 7:17 am
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