Energy Fuels Inc., as indicated in it early 2023 10K Report the USSEC, is an Ontario corporation with its corporate offices located in Lakewood, Colorado (a city in the Denver metropolitan area). It was incorporated on June 24, 1987 in the Province of Alberta then changed its name to “Trevco Oil & Gas Ltd.” In May 1990, Trevco Oil & Gas Ltd. changed its name to “Trev Corp.” In August 1994, Trev Corp. changed its name to “Orogrande Resources Inc.” In April 2001, Orogrande Resources Inc. changed its name to “Volcanic Metals Exploration Inc.” On September 2, 2005, the Company was continued under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) (the “OBCA”). On March 26, 2006, Volcanic Metals Exploration Inc. acquired 100% of the outstanding shares of “Energy Fuels Resources Corporation.” On May 26, 2006, Volcanic Metals Exploration Inc. changed its name to “Energy Fuels Inc.”
Energy Fuels Projects
On November 5, 2013, the Company amended its Articles to consolidate its issued and outstanding, freely tradable Common Shares of the Company on the basis of one post-consolidation Common Share for every 50 pre-consolidation Common Shares. The Company’s U.S.-based assets, which include uranium, vanadium and REE extraction, recovery, permitting, evaluation and exploration assets, are held directly and indirectly, as the case may be, by the Company’s wholly owned subsidiaries Energy Fuels Holdings Corp. and Strathmore Minerals Corp. On May 19, 2022, the Company announced it had entered into binding agreements to acquire the South Bahia Project in the State of Bahia, Brazil consisting of 17 mineral concessions totaling approximately 37,300 acres or 58.3 square miles. The Company’s wholly owned subsidiary Energy Fuels Brazil Ltda. completed the acquisition of the Bahia Project on February 10, 2023, and is the owner of the Bahia Project.
On February 14, 2023, the Company sold its Alta Mesa Project in Texas, through the sale of its three subsidiaries, Leoncito Project, LLC, Leoncito Plant, LLC and Leoncito Properties, LLC. All of the Company’s U.S.-based employees are employed by its subsidiary Energy Fuels Resources (USA) Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of EF Holdings, which also serves as operator of all of the Company’s U.S. properties. A diagram depicting the organizational structure of the Company and its active subsidiaries, including the name, U.S. state, Canadian province or Brazilian state of incorporation, and proportion of ownership interest of each, is included in this Annual Report.
Energy Fuels also owns a number of inactive subsidiaries which have no material assets or liabilities and do not engage in any material business activities.
We responsibly produce several of the raw materials needed for clean energy and advanced technologies, including uranium, rare earth elements and vanadium.
UF's primary product is U3O8 (also known as natural uranium concentrate or yellowcake), which, when further processed, becomes the fuel for the generation of clean nuclear energy. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, nuclear energy provides nearly 20% of the total electricity and 50% of the clean, carbon-free electricity generated in the U.S. The Company generates revenues from extracting and processing materials for the recovery of uranium, vanadium and REEs for our own account, as well as from toll processing materials for others.
Energy Fuels is engaged in conventional and ISR uranium extraction and recovery, along with the exploration, permitting, and evaluation of uranium properties in the U.S. The Company also extracts and recovers vanadium from certain of its uranium projects, as market conditions warrant. In 2021, the Company commenced its ramp-up to commercial production of REE carbonate, another byproduct of the uranium recovery process, and produced and sold commercial quantities of RE Carbonate in 2021 and 2022 and plans to continue its RE Carbonate sales in 2023.
To further its REE initiatives, the Company is currently undertaking enhancements and modifications to existing circuits at the Mill for the planned commercial separation of neodymium-praseodymium oxide from its RE Carbonate for sale in 2024, while at the same time producing a “heavies” (Sm+) RE Carbonate for sale in 2024. The Company also continues to evaluate the potential to recover radioisotopes from its existing process streams needed for emerging TAT cancer therapeutics.
The Company’s Mill, located near Blanding, San Juan County, Utah, is the only conventional uranium, vanadium and REE recovery facility operating in the U.S., having a licensed capacity of over 8 million pounds of U3O8 per year. In addition to uranium, the Mill can recover vanadium as a co-product of mineralized material produced from certain of its projects in Colorado and Utah and from solutions in its tailings impoundment system, as market conditions warrant. The Mill is also currently producing RE Carbonate from various uranium- and REE-bearing ores acquired from third parties and is in the process of developing planned REE separation capabilities at the Mill.
The Company is also securing its own sources of uranium- and REE-bearing monazite sands, and in February 2023 acquired the Bahia Project in Brazil in furtherance of a fully integrated U.S.-based REE supply chain. The Company continues to engage in active discussions to secure other sources of monazite
sands, thereby diversifying its supply base and strengthening its REE business. In addition, Energy Fuels recovers uranium from other uranium-bearing materials not derived from conventional material, referred to as “Alternate Feed Materials,” at its Mill, thereby recycling materials back into the market that would otherwise be lost to direct disposal.
With its uranium, vanadium, REE and potentially radioisotope production, the Mill is working to establish itself as a critical minerals hub in the U.S. Uranium is the fuel for carbon-free, emission-free baseload nuclear power, and one of the cleanest forms of energy in the world. The REEs we are now producing are used for the manufacture of permanent magnets for electric vehicles (“EVs”), wind turbines and other clean energy technologies. The radioisotopes we are evaluating for recovery from our REE and uranium processing streams have the potential to provide materials needed for emerging TAT cancer-fighting
therapeutics.
The very heart of our business – uranium and rare-earth production and recycling – helps us play a big part in addressing global climate change, reducing air pollution, and making the world a cleaner and healthier place. The Company owns conventional uranium, uranium/vanadium and heavy mineral properties and projects in various stages of exploration, permitting, and evaluation, as well as fully permitted uranium and uranium/vanadium projects on standby. Energy Fuels also owns the Nichols Ranch Uranium Recovery Facility in Wyoming, which is a fully permitted uranium ISR facility with a licensed capacity of 2 million pounds of U3O8 per year. The Nichols Ranch Project is currently being maintained on standby.
ISR Operations
The Company conducts its ISR activities through its Nichols Ranch Project in northeast Wyoming, which it acquired in June 2015 through its acquisition of Uranerz Energy Corporation (“Uranerz”). The Nichols Ranch Project includes: (i) a licensed and operating ISR processing facility (the “Nichols Ranch Plant”); (ii) licensed and operating ISR wellfields (the “Nichols Ranch Wellfields”); (iii) additional licensed ISR wellfields planned for future production (the “Jane Dough Property”), and; (iv) a licensed satellite ISR uranium project (the “Hank Project”), which will include an ISR satellite processing plant (the “Hank Satellite Plant”) that, when constructed, will produce loaded-resin, and associated planned wellfields (the “Hank Property”). See “The Nichols Ranch ISR Project” under Item 2 below. Also through the acquisition of Uranerz, the Company acquired the West North Butte property (the “West North Butte Property”) and the North Rolling Pin property (the “North Rolling Pin Property”), as well as the Arkose Mining Venture (the “Arkose Mining Venture”), which is a joint venture of Wyoming ISR properties held 81% by Energy Fuels.
The Nichols Ranch Project is an ISR facility currently on standby that recovers uranium through a series of injection and recovery wells. Using groundwater fortified with oxygen and sodium bicarbonate, uranium is dissolved within a deposit. The uranium-bearing groundwater is then collected in a series of recovery wells and pumped to the Nichols Ranch Plant where the uranium is extracted from the water. The Nichols Ranch Plant creates a yellowcake slurry that is transported by truck to the Mill, where it is dried and packaged into drums that are shipped to uranium conversion facilities.
Construction of the Nichols Ranch Plant, other than the elution, drying and packaging circuits, was completed in 2013, and it commenced uranium recovery activities in the second quarter of 2014. In September of 2015, the Company commenced construction of an elution circuit at the Nichols Ranch Plant, which was completed and began operations in February 2016. The Nichols Ranch Project was placed on standby in 2020. As a result, the Company recovered de minimis pounds of U3O8 from the Project in 2022 and expects to recover de minimis quantities of U3O8 in 2023. Nichols Ranch is expected to be able to ramp back up to commercial production levels with limited required capital within approximately twelve months of a production decision.
[See the rest of the UF's 10K report in the link above.]
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