ASX stocksare beginning to react as uranium spot price...

ASX stocksare beginning to react as uranium spot price approaches 5-year highs

2 hours ago | Reuben Adams

Last week, the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (SPUT) started buying up physicaluranium, taking it out of market circulation.

This yellowcake will be sequestered for the long term.

Last week it was 900,000lb. On Tuesday another 400,000lb wasbought and removed from the market, and there will be more to come.

A gigawatt-class reactor uses around 450,000lb per year, so this is no smallamount, according to 808s Online, ablog run by a US nuclear professional.

US financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald – which gives SPUTa ‘buy’ rating – says the Trust is now potentially the single largestparticipant in the spot market.

“We expect this will prove to be a catalyst that will move spoturanium prices higher, along with the related uranium equities,” it says.

So far, Cantor Fitzgerald are ‘spot’ on. SPUT buying has nowsparked a ~11% gain in the uranium spot price to fresh 12-month highs.

Next stop — 5-year highs of ~$US34/lb.

Sprott’s buying spree is sparking renewed investor focus on uranium stocks, which have already enjoyed solid gains over the past nine months on a consensus bullish outlook for the nuclear fuel.

14 of the 18 companies on our list made gains on Tuesday. Sevenof the 18 stocks – Alligator, Bannerman, Elevate, Vimy, Deep Yellow, Paladinand Gladiator – are up 100% or more over the past year.

CODE		COMPANY	1 DAY RETURN [INTRADAY] %		1 WEEK RETURN %		1 MONTH RETURN %		6 MONTH RETURN %		1 YEAR RETURN %			PRICE		MARKET CAP
AGE	Alligator Energy			3		19		-11		138		520	0.031		$ 83,507,209.83
BMN	Bannerman Energy			11		11		3		20		257	0.15		$ 162,650,400.03
EL8	Elevate Uranium			10		8		-2		97		243	0.285		$ 59,338,147.96
VMY	Vimy Resources			4		9		0		26		224	0.12		$ 120,922,345.79
DYL	Deep Yellow			6		5		6		-1		188	0.69		$ 215,878,217.75
PDN	Paladin Energy			6		-3		1		22		172	0.465		$ 1,178,272,071.24
GLA	Gladiator Resources			10		15		15		15		130	0.023		$ 9,660,000.00
LAM	Laramide Resources			0		3		13		6		98	0.595		$ 695,760.28
BOE	Boss Energy			5		5		8		12		96	0.16		$ 353,132,827.43
PEN	Peninsula Energy			8		8		-7		0		87	0.14		$ 129,482,364.05
LOT	Lotus Resources			10		10		3		18		38	0.16		$ 158,060,000.00
CXU	Cauldron Energy			-3		0		-9		-19		7	0.03		$ 14,135,984.87
TIN	TNT Mines			6		3		13		-8		6	0.17		$ 19,207,716.64
TOE	Toro Energy			15		7		-12		-17		0	0.015		$ 50,665,448.34
VAL	Valor Resources			-11		-11		-20		-20		0	0.008		$ 21,230,000.00
GTR	GTI Resources			0		12		6		-10		-37	0.019		$ 12,245,841.96
BKY	Berkeley Energia			2		2		5		-56		-62	0.305		$ 77,694,570.00
92E	92Energy			13		0		-7					0.255		$ 8,862,750.23

Tuesday’s Standout Stocks

TORO ENERGY (ASX:TOE)

TOE’s ‘Wiluna’ uranium project is one of WA’s only advanceduranium projects with environmental approval from the state and federalgovernments.

Last quarter, SRK Consulting was appointed to carry out ascoping level engineering study for the mining and processing of the ‘LakeMaitland’ uranium deposit at Wiluna.

The re-engineering work follows on from the successfulsubsequent redesign of the processing flowsheet which envisages a cheaper, moreefficient stand-alone Lake Maitland mining and processing operation.

92ENERGY (ASX:92E)

The freshly listed uranium explorer wants to unlock thepotential of its tenements in Canada’s Athabasca Basin, just 11km from CigarLake — one of the world’s largest and highest-grade uranium deposits.

A recent survey over its ‘Tower’ and ‘Gemini’ projects hasidentified multiple prospective conductors that are prospective for high-grade,unconformity-type uranium.

Unconformity-type uranium deposits such as Cigar Lake andMcArthur River are some of the largest and richest deposits globally, it says.

Drill targeting over Tower and the northern portion of Geminiwill kick off upon receipt of the final processed geophysical data sets, thecompany says.

The $10.5m market cap stock is up 25% on its IPO price of 20cper share.

BANNERMAN ENERGY (ASX:BMN)

A recently released PFS on the Etango-8 project in Namibia envisages a 3.5 million pounds per annum operation with an initial life of 15 years.

This is an advanced project aiming to take advantage of thecoming uranium boom.

Etango-8’s $US274m development cost would take 3.8 years to payback at a projected uranium price of $US65/lb.

“The underlying robustness of this streamlined developmentapproach to the world-class Etango resource has now been confirmed to a PFSlevel of accuracy,” Bannerman boss Brandon Munro says.

“We now look forward to the completion of a DFS for Etango-8 inthe September 2022 quarter.”

LOTUS RESOURCES (ASX:LOT)

Lotus’ ‘Kayelekera’ project in Malawi – purchased from fellowAfrica-focused Paladin Energy (ASXDN) in March 2020 – will cost just $US50m to get up and running, the company says.

Kayelekera is a proven uranium operation having successfullyproduced 11Mlbs over five years, ceasing operations in 2014 due to sustainedlow uranium prices.

The Project Feasibility Study will commence during August 2021and is anticipated to be completed by mid-2022.

GLADIATOR RESOURCES (ASX:GLA)

Earlier this month the $9m market cap explorer secured exploration projects in Tanzania, East Africa, with a focus on uranium, rare earths, phosphate, and gold.

Tanzania, while mineral rich, can be an unstable jurisdictionfor Aussie companies to operate in.

Gladiator has assessed African exploration opportunities in thepast and approached this acquisition knowing the risks, Gladiator Resourceschairman Ian Hastings says.

“This transaction represents an opportunity to acquire wellknown and well documented uranium tenements which are also prospective forgold,” he says.

“All three prospects have the potential of being transformativeand Gladiator believes it has secured some of the best uranium ground in EastAfrica which may deliver shareholders great value over time.”