Uranium's State of Play

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Exploration, Mining, Marketing, & Acquisitions

Date posted: 11/28/15

Duyen Nguyen reports that forecasts for the Australian struggling uranium market are indicating growth, with an upturn fueled by Asian demand. Global uranium markets have been in decline since the Fukushima damage to two reactors from Tsunamis, when uranium was priced above $US70 a pound. As of the beginning of November, it was $US35.00 a pound. The Australian uranium industry has the potential for fast, positive growth, with Australia holding 31% of the world uranium,and some of the largest deposits in the world. With only three operating mines (Ranger, Olympic Dam and Beverley), Australia ranked third in global uranium production behind Canada (1), and Kazakhstan (2), with a total output of 5,897 tonnes of U3O8 in 2014.\n\nAs Australia currently relies mostly on coal for electricity generation, and does not use nuclear power, all production is currently exported. Despite ongoing weakness from global uranium markets, characterized by low demand and prices, Toro Energy acting chairman John Cahill, and managing director Vanessa Guthrie are confident the bottom of the uranium cycle has passed, with a gradual return to more encouraging prices. This return to more robust market conditions is derived from emerging economies who are turning toward efficient and low emission means of generating power. New resources minister Josh Frydenberg is a strong advocate of the Australian uranium industry and strongly believes it holds vast amounts of potential. Australia has around one-third of the world supply of low-cost uranium reserves and they successfully export uranium to other countries... 31 countries use uranium to produce nuclear power, Frydenberg told the media. He says that they will continue to encourage the export of uranium and new mines will go through the proper approval processes and assessments. There is a strong likelihood that China will import uranium from Australia, rather than nearby Kazakhstan or Canada.