US uranium company unveils conversion facility plans

Texas-headquartered UEC said the new company will be called United States Uranium Refining & Conversion Corp. (UR&C). The initiative responds to federal policy under recent Executive Orders from the White House calling for a fourfold increase of US nuclear generating capacity by 2050 and reducing reliance on overseas suppliers. Onshoring the nuclear fuel cycle is seen as a priority for national security.

"Positioning UEC as the only vertically integrated US company with uranium mining, processing, refining and conversion capabilities is both a significant commercial opportunity and a strategic necessity for the United States," UEC President and CEO Amir Adnani said. UEC's end-to-end capabilities would provide a secure, geopolitically reliable source of uranium hexafluoride - the feedstock needed for uranium enrichment to produce nuclear fuel - for "undersupplied domestic and allied markets," he added.

"We are structuring UR&C as a subsidiary to advance this initiative in a fiscally optimal manner, including tactical partnerships and direct investments. This allows UEC to maintain a strong balance sheet and continue to prioritise its core uranium mining and processing business, while separately advancing UR&C to enhance UEC shareholder value," Adnani said.

UEC Chairman and former US Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said the USA has "for far too long" relied on foreign sources to supply and process the critical materials essential for national and economic security. "We are seeking to address this problem by advancing a vertically integrated supply chain for natural UF6, providing essential feedstock for commercial enrichment to power the world's largest nuclear reactor fleet and supplying the unobligated US-origin uranium required to fuel America's nuclear navy. The proposed facility directly aligns with US policy and would contribute to unlocking American enrichment growth."

UEC has three hub and spoke in-situ recovery uranium platforms in South Texas and Wyoming with a combined licensed production capacity of 12.1 million pounds U3O8 (4654 tU) per year. UR&C will position UEC as the only American company with a nuclear fuel supply chain capability from uranium production to refining, conversion, and delivery of natural UF6, the company said. High conversion prices in both the spot and long-term markets are "indicative of a highly undersupplied market and a major bottleneck in the US nuclear fuel supply chain, and market conditions, plus current federal government support, have created a "prime opportunity" for a US company to develop a new uranium refining and conversion plant, it added.

The proposed facility - which UEC says will be the largest conversion facility in the USA and "amongst the most modern in the Western world" - is envisaged as having a designed capacity to produce some 10,000 tU per year as UF6, representing a "substantial share" of the USA's 18,000 tU per year demand.

The proposed facility is the result of work initiated with Fluor Corporation in July 2024 and supported by a recently completed AACE Class 5 conceptual study. UEC said it has initiated discussions on potential siting options, "evaluating factors such as logistics, workforce availability, public acceptance, local incentives, and synergies with other fuel cycle facilities."

"The project will move forward contingent on several factors, including completion and assessment of additional engineering and economic studies, securing strategic government commitments, utility contracts, regulatory approvals, and favorable market conditions," the company said. "UEC has begun initial discussions with the United States government, state-level energy authorities, utilities, and financial entities, and will report further updates as these engagements advance."

Conversion is a chemical process to refine U3O8 to uranium dioxide, which can then be converted into uranium hexafluoride gas. Honeywell's Metropolis Works plant, built in the 1950s in southern Illinois, is currently the only uranium conversion facility in the USA. It was temporarily shut down from 2017 to 2023 due to poor market conditions, but was restarted in July 2023.