Uranium Energy (NYSE: UEC) shares rose on Thursday after the company received approval from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality to increase the licensed production capacity at its Irigaray central processing plant to 4 million pounds (lbs) of U3O8 annually, up from the previous capacity of 2.5 million pounds.
The Irigaray plant is central to the company’s hub-and-spoke production strategy in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, supporting four fully permitted uranium in-situ recovery satellite projects in the area.
Uranium Energy’s Powder River Basin ISR portfolio has an estimated aggregate resource of 62,329,200 lbs of U3O8 in the measured and indicated category, with an additional 10,724,700 lbs in the inferred category.
“The extraordinary growth in nuclear power in the US is creating a new demand paradigm for uranium supply from stable domestic sources,” said Uranium Energy CEO Amir Adnani.
“Big tech companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle are making significant financial commitments to nuclear energy to provide the electricity needed to power data centers. This approach, investing directly in nuclear generation infrastructure, reflects the realization that nuclear energy offers safe, highly reliable, economic, and clean energy.”
By 12 pm EDT, shares of Uranium Energy were up 6% in New York, giving the company a market cap of $3.47 billion.
In September, Uranium Energy reached a $175 million deal to buy Rio Tinto’s (ASX, LON, NYSE: RIO) assets in Wyoming, which include the fully-licensed Sweetwater plant and a portfolio of uranium mining projects.
The Sweetwater plant is a 3,000 tonne per day conventional processing mill with a licensed capacity of 4.1 million pounds of triuranium octoxide (U3O8), a compound of uranium.
Uranium Energy estimates the transaction will add about 175 million pounds of historic resources.
In addition to the two hub-and-spoke platforms in Wyoming, the company operates an ISR hub-and-spoke production platform in South Texas, centered around the Hobson Central Processing Plant, with a licensed capacity of 4 million pounds of U3O8 annually.
Source: MINING.COM – Read More
