The uranium price has run up so quickly that one might confuse this mildly poisonous metal with a semi-precious one. Yellowcake, the uranium oxide required to produce nuclear fuel, has nearly tripled in value to about $84 per pound in just three years. Listed uranium miners have enjoyed plenty of investor attention, who increasingly see the virtue of nuclear power as a low-carbon source of electricity.
By January the price at $105 far exceeded the top of the cost curve at $75, points out Tom Price at Liberum. He thinks both producers are trying to increase production as a result. Neither Paladin nor Fission have made any profits yet. From this year things will change. Paladin should turn free cash flow positive from next year . This marks a good time to take on Fission’s Patterson Lake South project in Alberta.