Posted on 06/17/2010 11:40:08 AM PDT by bananaman22
Uranium is a very unusual sector. For one, it's small. So small, that at one point in history top-producing nations like Canada and France tried to form a uranium cartel to control prices for the metal.
The "uranium OPEC" failed. But production today is de facto controlled by a handful of companies.
Consider this. The world's top ten uranium mines account for 59% of global production. (The top mine, Saskatchewan's McArthur River, alone puts out 15% of the world's supply.)
This is very concentrated, compared to other sectors. In the copper sector, the top ten mines turn out just 30% of global supply. For gold, the number is even lower. About 19%.
This means that what happens at a just few uranium mines around the world makes a big difference to the price for the metal.
For this reason alone, good uranium projects are interesting. Any deposit that could become a significant supplier will garner a lot of interest. From would-be producers who want to break the stranglehold existing suppliers have on the market. And from same existing suppliers, who want to keep as much control as possible over the sector. Full article at: Uranium Market
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
It won’t be Americans
“On July 21, 2009, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced a decision to segregate nearly 1 million acres of federal lands in the Arizona Strip for two years while the Department evaluates whether to withdraw these lands from new mining claims for an additional 20 years. The lands, managed by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, are within portions of the Grand Canyon watershed and contain significant environmental and cultural resources as well as substantial uranium deposits”
Wish it were myranium.
Interesting article, thanks. I went to check on what the USGS had to say about the market for uranium and they don’t even list it in their commodity summaries here:
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/mcs/
Peculiar. I was under the impression their were viable uranium deposits in the USA that had been shut down due to lack of demand. I know there was a lot of prospecting done back in the 50’s for the stuff.
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