Cameco scorns 'mythical' uranium demand, vows supply discipline
North America’s largest uranium miner won’t crank up production of the radioactive metal to chase what one executive calls “mythical” market demand.
Instead, Canada’s Cameco is advocating “indefinite supply discipline” by limiting production at two of its key Canadian uranium operations starting in 2024, despite plans to restart its idled McArthur River/Key Lake operations in Saskatchewan this year.
“Our focus is shifting to securing homes for our in ground inventory that is not yet been committed,” CEO Tim Gitzel said Wednesday in an earnings call with analysts. “We won’t chase the market down to win business and we won’t produce to dump uncommitted supply into a thinly traded spot market as we’ve seen some of our competitors do.”
The CEO’s comments throw cold water on the idea of a looming uranium rally fueled by an improving outlook for nuclear power amid a global push for more clean energy. Cameco told analysts that it’s looking to book contracts years in advance to catch a coming windfall of demand, though it’s not clear how many new projects will emerge. That leaves the thinly traded spot market at a standstill and why prices lost steam when immediate demand failed to materialise. The Sprott Physical Uranium Trust, which tracks spot prices, is down more than 20% since a September high.
“This is how the uranium market works -- it is not a spot market, it is not a market where you have an opportunity on an annual basis to capture full global demand,” Cameco’s CFO Grant Isaac said in the call. “For us it’s about responding to the actual market and industrial structure of the uranium space, not to some mythical spot market assumption for creating value and uranium, because that’s been a failed strategy over and over again.”
Article Enquiry
Email Article
Save Article
Feedback
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation

















