Australia's booming uranium sector has exploded through the $3 billion mark, with surging uranium prices and red-hot appetite for stocks lifting the combined value of its listed players five-fold over the past year.
As of yesterday, pure uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia and the 20-plus junior companies promoting uranium plays were worth an aggregate $3.3 billion, up from just $700 million at the same time last year.
Emerging miner Paladin Resources yesterday added another 10 per cent to a fresh record high.
Its latest run coincided with details of yet another uranium float, with Agincourt Resources readying to feed the demand by spinning off its Wiluna uranium interests via the $23.4 million Nova Energy.
Nova Energy, the latest float to come out of the Argonaut Capital stable, is looking to raise $6 million at 40¢ a share. Headed by Agincourt managing director and former Newmont Mining senior executive Tim Sugden, Nova is based on the Lake Way and Centipede uranium deposits at Wiluna which were discovered in the early 1970s and host about 18 million pounds of uranium.
But development of a mine by Nova, or other Australian uranium explorers, is dependent on overturning political opposition to uranium mining, particularly at State level.
Mr Sugden said he believed growing community concerns about global warming, improvements in the management of nuclear fuels and by-products and a realisation of the economic benefits would force the WA Government to reconsider its no uranium mining policy.
Agincourt will retain about 50 per cent of Nova, which once listed will have a market value of $23.4 million based on its 40¢ issue price. The company will be managed by Richard Pearce, a former Rio Tinto executive and associate director of KPMG Consulting.
Shares in Perth-based Paladin, the market's best-performing stock in the last financial year, jumped 15¢ to $1.74 yesterday, valuing the company at just under $700 million.
The company, which is developing the $US90 million ($117 million) Langer Heinrich project in Namibia and is conducting a feasibility study for a second mine in Malawi, has added more than $200 million to its market value in the past month.
The booming uranium market has been driven by a near-trebling of uranium prices to $US29 a pound in the past 18 months on growing demand for nuclear energy and a global shortage of new production.
Shares in Northern Territory uranium miner ERA have surged to $14.70 from $4.05 in the past 12 months, pushing its market value to $2.1 billion from $578 million.
Summit Resources, a 50 per cent owner of Queensland's Valhalla deposit, has seen its market worth surge to almost $128 million from $8.8 million in the past year as its share price rocketed to 72¢ from 5¢.
Uranium flavoured floats in the past six months delivering gains include Curamona Energy (245 per cent), Marathon Resources (97 per cent), Pepinnini Minerals (95 per cent), Hindmarsh Resources (90 per cent) and Scimitar Resources (37 per cent). Uranium juniors Berkeley Resources, Redport Resources, Giralia Resources, OmegaCorp, Giralia Resources and Deep Yellow have also seen their share prices leap.
