Uranium price reaches record $113/lb

11 April 2007

[TradeTech, 6 April; Bloomberg, 9 April] The spot price of uranium increased by $18 to a record $113 per pound U3O8 following the results of a sealed-bid auction of 100,000 pounds U3O8 (45.4 tonnes U3O8) by Mestena Uranium LLC, a US producer. This is the largest single increase since uranium prices were first reported in 1968, and marks a 57% increase in the spot uranium price since the beginning of 2007, according to TradeTech LLC. The seller's bid request received a strong response, with members of all the market groups - producers, traders, investors, and utilities - vying to purchase the material, TradeTech said. Reduced output at Energy Resources of Australia's (ERA's) Ranger mine due to heavy rainfall, as well as flooding at Cameco's Cigar Lake project in Canada, have helped raise prices. Privately held Mestena Uranium, which operates the Alta Mesa mine in Texas, produces about 455 tonnes U3O8 annually, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

(Note: The headline of earlier editions of this article stated that the spot price was $133/lb. This should have read $113/lb, as is correctly stated in the text of this article)

Further information

TradeTech

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