METALS MARKET BOOM | NUCLEAR FUEL


furthering ground exploration and analysis, expanding the


key Tait Hill property and securing a new property, Badger Lake. We view the uranium portfolio of Power Metal to be a key part of our company, seeing us uniquely well positioned for what we expect to be a significant increase in the level of interest in junior resource companies offering uranium exposure.” He added that shareholders can expect more developments from Power Metal’s current and potential future uranium interests into 2023. In March 2023, the company went further, saying in


a market update that the Canadian acquisitions reflect “the company’s view that the uranium commodity is to experience a renaissance due to global expansion of nuclear power generation”.


Athabasca and onwards At least half a dozen other companies are involved in exploration around the Athabasca area. Stallion Discoveries is among the newest entrants,


after acquiring two smaller companies. It acquired Hathor Exploration at the beginning of the year, having already bought U92 Exploration, which had six claims. Stallion’s footprint in the basin is 78,831 hectares and chief executive Drew Zimmerman said, “We are excited to be acquiring projects in this region of the Athabasca Basin, which is poised to become the next major area for new uranium operations in northern Saskatchewan. Given the extreme proximity of these claims to recent high-grade discoveries we see tremendous potential in creating value for all stakeholders by deploying the exploration techniques being utilised to the area.” Zimmerman said the company plans to start a work


programme on the newly acquired claims in the first quarter of this year. Stallion also plans to change its name to Stallion Discoveries Corp. to better reflect its focus as a large-scale, multi-resource project explorer. NexGen Energy is a Canadian company headquartered


in Vancouver, British Columbia, with its primary operations office in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It said its Rook I Project – Arrow – has resources of 239 million lb, which is being developed into the “largest low cost producing uranium mine globally”. NexGen describes uranium as the “best source of clean, dense energy to decarbonize the world”. It suggested that uranium was strategic asset that will restore Canada as a global leader in the delivery of clean-energy fuel. But it said the supply deficit is widening, with growing global needs for uranium and a lack of near-term projects. There had been “extreme under-investment in uranium sector for over 10 years [and] no incentive provided to explore, develop, permit, construct or operate.” Mines have been depleted in recent years resulting in even fewer remedies to growing demand and since 2016, when uranium mines started to close, global inventories have been depleted. It said the average all-in ‘economic’ cost of the industry requires a more than 50% rise in prices. But new supply cannot respond quickly, no matter what the uranium price. It estimates that the annual supply deficit to be up to three times NexGen’s average annual volume by 2030 and 10 times NexGen’s volume by 2040 – resulting in “sustainably high uranium prices”. The company’s Arrow deposit is “conducive to conventional low-cost bulk mining methods, it said.


Priorities for 2023 include submitting provincial and federal final environmental impact statements, completing front end engineering designs, initiation of pre-completion works, completing final licensing and ordering items with a long lead time. The US may not have large-scale current uranium


extraction but Uranium Energy Crop (UEC) has eleven projects at various stages of development across Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Wyoming, as well as in Paraguay. In Athabasca it is in joint venture with Orano at Shea Creek, which has a resource of 95 million lb. Orano is also holding a decommissioned mine nearby at Cluff Lake.


Across the world Canada’s history of uranium exploitation has also made it a starting point for companies looking for this energy metal across the world. African Energy Metals is a natural resource company


focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of copper, cobalt and lithium mineral properties in the DRC, as well as uranium, describing these as “key exploration projects with exposure to the metals that are key to the electrification of tomorrow’s global economy”. In DRC, the Manono area has potential for discovery of lithium, tin, tantalum and rare earths. In Mali, the Falea property has a large uranium deposit as well as significant copper and silver resources. The region is well known to the uranium industry: the site is just 80 km to the east of Orano’s Saraya East uranium deposit in Senegal (Orano was previously known as Areva). African Energy Metals acquired a stake in three uranium


exploration licences for this project last year. Now the company is completing a $2.5 mn fundraising Stephen Barley, executive chairman of African Energy


Metals, commented: “We are excited to become involved in the Falea project. It is a polymetallic project with a significant uranium resource.” Myriad Uranium Corp. is a Canadian mineral exploration


company with an interest in Millen Mountain in Nova Scotia. Overseas, it has an option in uranium exploration licences in the Tim Mersoı̈ Basin, in Niger. Myriad chief executive Thomas Lamb said, “Our goal is to be one of the world’s most successful uranium explorers”. He added, “Myriad’s Agebout licence, formerly held by Orano’s predecessor Areva, is just a few kilometres north of Africa’s largest uranium deposit, Imouraren, and on the same structure, the Arlit Fault.” Niger has been providing the US with uranium supplies since 2007 and Myriad said it could “soon be the world’s second largest uranium producer”. In a 2023 review of mining markets, Forbes magazine


picked uranium as one of its key opportunities. One commentator said, “In the 14 years I’ve been investing in the resource space I’ve never seen such bullish fundamentals for uranium.” They added, “Geopolitical events, coupled with the best supply/demand fundamentals I’ve ever seen should propel ‘best in class’ companies like UEC to new all-time highs, making investors that position correctly a lot of money”. The Forbes message was “2023 will be a breakout year


for uranium and uranium equities”. Indications from the companies we have highlighted bear that out: all want to make significant progress this year to meet the needs of existing and new uranium customers for secure supply. ■


www.neimagazine.com | May 2023 | 33


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