Colorado-based Energy Fuels Inc. is preparing to ramp up its Nichols Ranch uranium mine near Kaycee, Wyoming, for production by 2025, the company said.
Beginning next year, the Nichols Ranch and other uranium mines located in the Cowboy State and elsewhere could produce up to 2 million pounds of uranium per year, with the Wyoming mine representing “significant expansion potential,” said Energy Fuels CEO Mark Chalmers.
On a recent 2024 first quarter conference call with Wall Street analysts, Chalmers said that his company is building a combined uranium and rare earths mineral company that is exploring possible acquisition opportunities.
“We expect to be globally competitive,” Chalmers said of the rare earths side of the business.
The rare earth minerals bonanza is the result of consumers starved for magnet metals integral to the green transition to electric vehicles, wind turbines, consumer goods, robots and military drones, missiles and chips needed for sophisticated computing power.
Energy Fuels also has benefited from an effort led by the federal government to produce uranium for a $75 million strategic reserve in case it needs to be tapped in an emergency.
Other mining interests within Wyoming also plan to kick in uranium to the reserve.
These companies include Casper-based Ur-Energy Inc., with uranium mining in Wyoming’s Red Desert; Texas-based Uranium Energy Corp.; Encore, a Corpus Christi, Texas-based uranium producer in various stages of developing large uranium deposits throughout Wyoming; and Australian-based Peninsula Energy Ltd., which last month said that it plans to sell between $88 million and $117 million worth of Wyoming uranium from a mine near Gillette to a European nuclear fuel buyer from Belgium.
Excluding the Nichols Ranch mine, which is in a pre-production phase, Energy Fuels reported profit of $3.6 million on revenue of $25.4 million in the 2024 first quarter.
The company has several uranium projects in various stages of development scattered throughout the Powder River Basin. If all were in production, the company said it could produce up to 5 million pounds annually, including a Sheep Mountain project in south central Wyoming, about 20 miles south of Jeffrey City.
The Sheep Mountain project has more than 30 million pounds of uranium resources, the company said.
The company has benefited from record uranium spot prices hitting a multi-decade high — reaching $106 per pound in early February — that have served as a catalyst for launching its uranium business.
Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.
