Global X Uranium ETF USD (ISIN: US37950E2752)

Buenas noches

El Foro de la Industria Nuclear Española participa éstos días en la China International Nuclear Industry Exhibition, la principal exposición del sector nuclear que se celebra en Pekín. La exposición del sector nuclear en China cuenta con la participación de más de 30.000 personas que representan a empresas nacionales e internacionales. La delegación española, encabezada por Foro Nuclear, cuenta con el respaldo de ICEX España, Exportación e Inversiones y de la Oficina Comercial de España en Pekín.

Buenos días.

A largo plazo, las expectativas resultan optimistas para el mercado del Uranio...

1º) Con la vista puesta dentro de diez años, se espera que el mercado crezca significativamente. De hecho, la Asociación Nuclear Mundial calcula un incremento en la demanda de Uranio del 48% entre 2.013 y 2.023.

2º) Bloomberg pronostica que, tras presentar China e India planes muy importantes de apuesta por la energía nuclear, el precio del Uranio avanzará drásticamente en los próximos años, una evolución al alza que supondría la vuelta a los 70 dólares/onza en 2.016.

Aunque lo que establece la rentabilidad de la minería de Uranio es la relación entre el coste de extracción y producción con los precios del mercado internacional, conviene resaltar que el coste del combustible, una vez enriquecido, supone únicamente el 12% del total. Esto quiere decir que, si el precio del Uranio alcanzara los máximos históricos de 138 dólares/onza registrados en Junio de 2.007, el coste de la generación eléctrica de origen nuclear apenas se vería afectado.

Uranerz Energy Corporation has commenced uranium mining operations at its wholly-owned Nichols Ranch ISR Uranium Project, located in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming after receiving final clearance from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"This is an exciting time for our entire team as Nichols Ranch becomes the newest uranium mine in North America," said Uranerz CEO Glenn Catchpole. The Nichols Ranch ISR Uranium Project is the company's first uranium mine.

Uranium mining operations have commenced by using the in-situ recovery ("ISR") mining method wherein groundwater fortified with oxygen, sodium bicarbonate and carbon dioxide is circulated through the sandstone-hosted uranium deposit by means of injection and recovery wells. Uranium is extracted from the groundwater using ion-exchange technology. The uranium-loaded resin from the ion-exchange vessels at Nichols Ranch will be transported to Cameco Resources' Smith Ranch uranium processing facilities for final processing pursuant to a toll processing agreement between the two companies. Uranerz will arrange for shipments of its uranium from the Smith Ranch facility to a conversion facility where ownership will be transferred to its nuclear utility customers.

Link: http://www.wyomingbusinessreport.com/article/20140416/NEWS/140419958/0/SEARCH

The relationship between Energy Resources of Australia and a crucial group of indigenous people appears to be deteriorating, after the miner raised doubts about its ability to pay for the rehabilitation of the Ranger uranium mine near Kakadu. The open pits at Ranger have already come to the end of their working lives, and the only chance of further mining is if an exploration campaign on site, known as ''Ranger 3 Deeps'', is successful. ERA surprised its stakeholders last month when it suggested it might struggle to pay for the rehabilitation if Ranger 3 Deeps did not go ahead.

''If the Ranger 3 Deeps mine is not developed, in the absence of any other successful development, ERA may require an additional source of funding to fully fund the rehabilitation of the Ranger Project Area,'' the company said in its annual report. ERA is 68 per cent owned by Rio Tinto, but Rio boss Sam Walsh indicated last week that Rio had already contributed to the rehabilitation costs at Ranger when it participated in a $500 million equity raising for ERA in 2011. ''There was a rights issue at ERA to fund the rehabilitation work and those funds are still sitting within that business,'' said Mr Walsh. ''[ERA] is a public Australian company and clearly that is an issue for them. ''We are clearly shareholders, but it's a matter for all shareholders and a matter for the ERA board.''
The comments have worried the local indigenous group - the Mirarr people - whose permission is required before ERA can conduct any further mining at Ranger.

Justin O'Brien, who runs the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation for the Mirarr people said the group's land was being held to ransom by the miners. ''The attitude of Rio and ERA shows that little has changed in more than three decades since [land rights campaigner] Galarrwuy Yunupingu described talks over the Ranger mine as 'like negotiating with a gun to my head','' he said. ''The mining giants have made enormous profits at the expense of Mirarr traditional lands and are now holding the World Heritage-listed area to ransom.''

ERA has already started some rehabilitation work at Ranger, has made provisions and also has a trust for rehabilitation in place with the Australian government, which was holding $63.9 million at December 31. A spokesman for ERA said the company's long-term business plan was to ensure the business could meet its rehabilitation obligations.

Link: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/ranger-mine-era-attracts-ire-from-local-community-over-uranium-rehab-20140420-36ymv.html

A proposed uranium mine in western South Dakota's Black Hills may have gotten a license to operate last week, but opponents say the company will have to clear several hurdles, as they'll fight the move. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s controversial ruling comes four months in advance of a public hearing the body had scheduled to hear arguments against Powertech Uranium’s (TSE:PWE) proposed mine and in situ recovery facility, AP reports.

The regulator concluded the plant’s operation would be safe enough, “including management of radiological and chemical hazards, groundwater protection, and eventual clean-up and decommissioning." In a statement, Powertech President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Clement said the company had confidence in the team that put together the application. “The issuance of the NRC’s final license is the culmination of eight years of planning and evaluation and confirms again that our plan for in situ recovery mining at Dewey-Burdock is safe and will have minimal environmental impact,” Clement said.

Opponents fear that the mining would pollute the environment and upset American Indian burial grounds and said they would ask a judge to issue a stay against the license. "Just because a pro-nuclear agency has given this a green light doesn't mean it's a good idea," Lilias Jarding of Clean Water Alliance told the Rapid City Journal. Backers argue the proposed Dewey-Burdock mine would bring jobs to the area and tax revenue to the region and the state, note supporters. Powertech is merging with its largest shareholder, Azarga Resources. The new company will be known as Azarga Uranium.

Link: http://www.mining.com/planned-uranium-mine-in-south-dakota-clears-key-hurdle-34453/

Another day, another uranium mine. Well, not quite, but the steady stream of new insitu uranium mines continued on Tuesday when Uranerz announced it has begun operations at its Nichols Ranch facility. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently approved a permit for a new uranium mine in the Black Hills and the Bureau of Land Management granted its approval to Cameco Corp.'s proposed mine in central Wyoming. Those approvals come on the heels of the opening of Ur-Energy's Lost Creek mine last year.

Development of the new facilities has been hampered somewhat by low uranium prices, but industry analysts widely expect to see a rebound in prices in 2015. That is the year the Japanese are expected to restart several nuclear reactors shut down following the Fukushima diaster. Insitu mines are not mines in the traditional sense. In many respects, they are more like an oil field, with water pumped underground to dissolve the uranium and then pumped back to the surface where the uranium is separated and dried.

Nichols Ranch is projected to produce between 600,000 to 800,000 pounds of uranium annually in the first years of operation. The facility has the capacity to produce 2 million pounds of uranium annually. Uranerz, a Casper-based company, received a $20 million state loan for the project last year. State officials said at the time it would create jobs and grow Wyoming's tax base. The mine straddles Johnson and Campbell counties.

Link: http://trib.com/business/energy/morning-energy-roundup-nichols-ranch-begins-uranium-operations-a-tale/article_3b2387a2-8a91-5991-97cb-743e570a9082.html

Australian uranium mine developer Toro Energy announced in February that South Africa-based investment fund RealFin Capital Partners (RealCap) has subscribed early for shares, for a second time, under the broader $10-million equity subscription investment package, or subscription agreement, which was announced in December last year. RealCap has confirmed to Toro that, in addition to the balance of the $1-million subscription owing for Tranche 2 shares, it wishes to accelerate its subscription for $500 000 of the $2-million Tranche 3 subscription shares ahead of the May 31 due date.

RealCap has now subscribed to a total of $3.5-million of the $5-million commitment outlined in the subscription agreement. Accordingly, Toro will issue 23 474 178 ordinary shares at 6.39c a share on receipt of the $1.5-million, after which settlement is expected to occur within seven to 10 business days. RealCap CEO Steve Doidge says the company is expecting a “major” rerating in the global uranium sector in the next 12 to 18 months, as per RealCap’s uranium investment thesis. “We have high expectations of our holding in Toro Energy and the utmost confidence in the professionalism and capability of the Toro team and its MD Vanessa Guthrie,” he adds.

“As was the case with our previous subscription, we have accelerated a portion of our Tranche 3 investment as RealCap wishes to take advantage of what we perceive to be extremely attractive entry points for the uranium sector as a whole. RealCap looks forward to investing additional capital into Toro in the coming months.” The positive subscription profile from RealCap parallels Toro’s ongoing advancement of the 100%-owned Wiluna uranium mine, in Western Australia, as well as the start of the government assessment and approval processes to mine additional deposits at Wiluna, namely Millipede and Lake Maitland.

Toro already has all the necessary government approvals to start mining from Wiluna’s Centipede and Lake Way deposits, and has a processing plant located at Centipede. A mine scoping study completed by Australia-based engineering services provider Tetra-Tech Proteus, indicates that the Centipede, Lake Way, Millipede and Lake Maitland deposits can produce about 30-million pounds of uranium over a 16-year mine life at an average cost of $31/lb.

This pinpoints the proposed A$315-million Wiluna mine as one of the few uranium projects in the world capable of bringing new production to global markets at a time – the second half of the decade – when uranium prices are forecast to rise.

Link: http://www.miningweekly.com/article/early-investment-made-in-australian-uranium-mine-2014-04-04

A share of a $5.15 billion settlement related to the environmental legacy of a company acquired by Anadarko will clean up contamination from about 50 Cold War-era uranium mines on Navajo land. The Navajo Nation and the Environmental Protection Agency will use about $1 billion to clean up areas contaminated with radioactive material from mines operated by Kerr-McGee, the EPA announced last week. The work is expected to remediate 10 percent of the abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo reservation, which covers 27,000 square miles in three southwestern states.

The settlement resolves fraudulent conveyance claims related to the spinoff of a company called Tronox that held most of Kerr-McGee's environmental liability and filed for bankruptcy in 2009. According to the EPA, it is the largest bankruptcy-related settlement for environmental cleanup ever. The settlement will also fund chemical contamination cleanup at Lake Mead and at more than 2,700 other sites across the country.

Link: https://nuclearstreet.com/nuclear_power_industry_news/b/nuclear_power_news/archive/2014/04/08/kerr_2d00_mcgee-settlement-includes-_2400_1-billion-for-navajo-uranium-mine-cleanup-040801.aspx#.U1PQYChzi0I