The utilities were very confident Cameco would not C&M McArthur River.
They saw the move to suspend production last year as a means to prop up the spot price, knowing full well Canadian legislation provided Cameco the luxury of sending their workforce home for up to 12 months without initiating redundancies.
But Cameco have made the difficult call to C&M McArthur River.
...and here comes the kicker for the utilities - at least US based ones.
The pending section 232 probe by the US means they can't really go to the miners and start writing new 10 year contracts. They are all of a sudden kinda locked out of that option.
So there has been a massive mindset change for the utilities overnight.
From a smug... we can just sit back and let the status quo of oversupply provide us with plenty of scope to write warm fuzzy contracts when it suits us.
To a sit up and take notice with a little sweat on the brow... what the hell will the spot price be in 12+ months now all the parasites are going to get stuck into the market and front run Cameco on the spot market.
It can really change that quickly, no longer is it about how many million pounds of supply are sitting in the market, but instead the perception of what might happen to the spot price as the speculators swagger through the door.
(20min delay)