Uranium Investing News

By Luke Brocki - Exclusive to Uranium Investing News and U3O8.biz

Price publishers Ux Consulting and Tradetech have both left their spot uranium price indicators unchanged at US$64.50 a pound U3O8 this week, but Cameco’s troubles have stimulated a market threatening to fall into a late summer slumber.

Cameco announced it had temporarily suspended dewatering efforts at its flooded Cigar Lake project last week, after the water inflow rate unexpectedly increased. Other producers suffered as well; Uranium Resources and Denison both reduced their production forecast. And Tradetech reported a 17%-drop in US and Canadian uranium production for the first 6 months of 2008 compared to the first half of 2007.

But Cameco’s troubles brought good news for investors, as they expanded the gap between willing buyers and sellers, the latter of which moved up their offer prices in anticipation of price increases after Cameco’s dewatering delays. Still, buyers have yet to bite on the new prices.

On Wednesday, Cameco was up C$1.06, or 3.6%, to close at C$30.48, after announcing progress at another troubled facility. The company said its Port Hope conversion plant is expected to come back online sometime in the next month. Production at the facility has been offline since July 2007, when a uranium leak was discovered under the plant while crews were replacing a storage tank at the facility.

But it was news of Cameco’s Port Hope troubles that roused a multitude of juniors on the TSX on Wednesday. Winners included Cline Mining, which gained nine cents, or 11.8%, to close at 85 cents; Delta Exploration, which gained 3.5 cents, or 21.9%, to 19.5 cents; and Pitchstone Exploration, which gained nine cents, or 18%, to 59 cents.

Melkior Resources was up two cents, or 12.5%, to 18 cents; and.Forum Uranium was up 4.5 cents, or 26.5%, to 21.5 cents, after announcing the closure of a private placement worth more than $746,000.

In global nuclear news, BHP Billiton is getting ready to sell uranium to China after completing an expansion at its Olympic Dam mine in South Australia. BHP CEO Marius Kloppers told Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph that the company had inherited a fully sold uranium portfolio when it bought out the mine’s former owners, WMC Resources. But Kloppers said an expansion would be required if the company is to sell uranium to power-hungry China.

Also in Austalia, the nuclear debate is back on the front burner, after the liberals called the technology essential, if the country wants to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The country’s current government has strongly opposed the push to go nuclear, but Australia’s liberals now suggest the country should put its plentiful uranium reserves to good domestic use.

And, in more news from China, German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported Tuesday that Jordan and China have signed a nuclear cooperation agreement, with a focus on electricity generation and water desalination. The agreement will see the two countries cooperate in research and development of nuclear energy, building and operation of reactors, mineral exploration, and nuclear waste disposal.