The Northern Miner February 4 2019 Issue 3

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VALE: 84 DEAD, 276 MISSING IN TAILINGS SPILL IN BRAZIL / 4 Geotech_Earlug_2016_Alt2.pdf 1 2016-06-24 4:27:20 PM

SPECIAL FOCUS

LITHIUM & URANIUM Metals powering the future / 9–16

DELIVERING QUALITY EXPERTISE GLOBALLY ACROSS THE ENTIRE MINING LIFE CYCLE

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FEBRUARY 4–17, 2019 / VOL. 105 ISSUE 3 / GLOBAL MINING NEWS · SINCE 1915 / $3.99 / WWW.NORTHERNMINER.COM

Uranium Energy lays groundwork Balmoral finds for market recovery nickel DEVELOPMENT

| Texas ISR project remains on ‘hot standby,’ company says

BY TRISH SAYWELL tsaywell@northernminer.com

O

ver the last two years, Uranium Energy (NYSE-AM: UEC) has taken advantage of the downturn in uranium markets and acquired uranium projects in the Powder River basin of Wyoming, Canada’s Athabasca basin and Paraguay. “When prices are falling you can pull your horns in and sit on your hands, but we’ve been very active,” says Scott Melbye, UEC’s vice-president corporate development. At the same time it was picking up new assets and consolidating land packages, it shut down its Palangana in-situ recovery (ISR) mine and Hobson ISR processing plant in Texas, a strategy it says is prudent at a time when the uranium industry is so troubled. “We feel it’s a waste of resources, both financial and mineral, to try to produce in a market that is giving

zones at Grasset

QUEBEC

| Follow-up drilling in the works BY RICHARD QUARISA rquarisa@northernminer.com

B Drillers at Uranium Energy’s Burke Hollow uranium property in Texas.   URANIUM ENERGY

signals it doesn’t need production,” Melbye says. “It was a market-driven decision to ramp down production

and preserve the assets in the ground for a better market when the production is not adding to oversupply and valued more appropriately.” Now, he says, signs are beginning to emerge that a better market may be just around the corner, with production cuts at Cameco (TSX: CCO; NYSE: CC) and in Kazakhstan helping to rebalance the industry after a seven-year bear market triggered by the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011. “We’re seeing early innings of a price recovery,” he says. “We’re up 34% on the spot market from a low of US$17.75 per lb. in November 2016 … and it’s really happening on the market fundamentals, and that’s just demand.” Despite all the challenges Fukushima presented the industry, he says, “we are building more reactors around the world than we ever have and generation from nuclear energy has reached a nice threshold, where we’re now producing more electricity from nuclear energy than we were at the time of Fukushima.” He says positive catalysts for the sector include a new procurement cycle for utilities, as many of the eight- to 10-year contracts that have met their needs since the last bull cycle are starting to roll off. For now, many utilities in the

“WE’RE SEEING EARLY INNINGS OF A PRICE RECOVERY.” SCOTT MELBYE VICE-PRESIDENT OF CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT, URANIUM ENERGY

almoral Resources (TSX: BAR; US-OTC: BALMF) has found several nickel sulphide zones in the central part of its Grasset ultramafic complex in Quebec after drilling the area during its late 2018 exploration program. The discoveries sit 7 km northwest of the company’s Grasset polymetallic deposit. Highlights include 1.05% nickel, 0.31% copper, 0.05% cobalt, 0.2 gram platinum per tonne and 0.48 gram palladium per tonne over 7.6 metres from 632 metres downhole, as well as 0.31% nickel over 42 metres from 180 metres downhole. See BALMORAL / 6 PM40069240

U.S. are waiting to see what happens with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Section 232 investigation into uranium imports. Earlier this year the DOC started the investigation after two mining companies — UrEnergy (TSX: URE) and Energy Fuels (TSX: EFR) — petitioned the agency to implement a 25% domestic purchase quota limiting imports. “With that investigation underway and a presidential decision in July, a lot of utilities that would have contracted by now are sitting on the sidelines to see what happens,” Melbye says. “We have a big procurement cycle that is set to resume, but hasn’t happened yet.” In the meantime, he sees investor interest picking up and more “buzz” around the commodity at industry conferences. “Whether it’s big hedge funds or institutions See URANIUM ENERGY / 2

COMMENTARY: STILL LOTS TO LIKE ABOUT DIAMONDS / 4–5

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