"Thanks for generously sharing your insights and vast knowledge. I was wondering what your thoughts are re investing in uranium either as a commodity or mining companies. I’m seeing a growing global interest - though not in Australia - in pursuing nuclear as a clean energy source given the unreliability of solar and wind."
I think investing in uranium is a very sound idea!
My view, having spent the past decade observing the energy transition - specifically the problems that are emerging with going from high EROEI (Energy Return on Energy Investment required) to low EROEI technologies and their accompanying intermittency limitations - is that most paths will ultimately lead to nuclear power.
So I'm quite unequivocal about it at the macro level, but I haven't got round to looking for the right vehicle (ETF, futures contract, individual stock) through which to ride that attractive macro headwind.
Coincidentally, earlier this week I had a chat to an energetic analyst who is also constructively disposed to uranium and he had an interesting and unique take; he is doing work looking at the uranium enrichment part of the nuclear supply chain.
I think this has merit and is analogous with what is happening in the oil-petroleum- petrochemical chain where, due to decades of under-investment globally, there is a bottleneck at the oil refinery point, which means refiner margins will be fundamentally stronger than history.
So he is looking at that similar pinch point in the uranium enrichment sector. Trouble is, the listed uranium enrichment sector is non-existent, so the proxy he is looking at is Silex Systems (SLX) which is developing (has developed?) a proprietary methodology for enriching uranium with the application of lasers, I believe.
I've not done any work at all on the stock except briefly scan the latest presentation which looks impressive with "blue-sky" appeal (in other words, the presentation's marketing brief is working - Canadian uranium giant Cameco is partner in the project), but whether they can actually commercialise it, and when such commercialisation might occur, I have no idea.
