In late January, Canadian uranium miner Denison Mines Corp. (ticker: DNN) and its joint venture partner, French nuclear fuels company Orano, announced that they will restart a uranium mine that has been idled since 2008.
Sixteen years ago, declining uranium prices meant the economics of the mine didn't make sense. Now, with uranium prices having roughly doubled over the past year, they do.
The companies plan to use a new mining method that takes less time to ramp up, but even then they don't expect commercial production to start until 2025, highlighting one of the bottlenecks to increasing supply even while demand increases.
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The nuclear fuel is being called upon to generate a greater amount of electricity as the globe tries to wean itself from fossil fuels. "Many countries have seen the upside to having nuclear generators and power plants," says Glenn Tompkins, senior instructor for VectorVest, which specializes in stock analysis. "More countries have these in the works."
Meanwhile, the U.S. is considering a ban on uranium imports from Russia, and the world's biggest uranium miner, Kazakhstan-based Kazatomprom (OTC: NATKY), has said it won't produce as much as expected because it can't access all of the sulfuric acid it needs to extract the heavy metal.
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The production crunch and demand expectations come after uranium miners for years didn't focus on investing in new........