At first glance, uranium doesn't seem to be all that important. It's rare and doesn't have a lot of uses. It occurs in low concentrations. But, once mined and refined, uranium is indeed in demand! It is a key fuel for nuclear power plants, an energy source that is gaining prominence around the world. Compared to coal, uranium-powered nuclear energy produces substantially more power and substantially less waste. So, when you combine the demand of uranium in a growing sector with its rarity that is a compelling story for investors.
One junior mining company, Ur-Energy Inc., is a uranium-specializing junior, based in Colorado, with exploration projects around North America and key projects in Wyoming. They are in the early stages of Uranium development and are setting their sites on the big time in coming years.
Recently, we had an opportunity to talk with Bill Boberg, Ur-Energy's President and CEO. Mr. Boberg is a Professional Geologist and holds a M.Sc. from the University of Colorado. He started with Ur-Energy as their senior US geologist in 2004, then moved to VP US Operations, and continued on to the positions he holds today.
He has over 35 years of experience as a consulting geologist in North America, South America and Africa and he has worked with companies like Gulf Minerals, Hecla Mining, Anaconda, Continental Oil Minerals Department, and more. Within his three and a half decades of industry experience, he has an impressive two decades of uranium-specific experience in North America. As Mr. Boberg explains, "I was involved in uranium starting in 1968 in Colorado, then in the 1970's and 1980's I was involved in uranium exploration and development in Wyoming." According to Ur-Energy's website, "he discovered the Moore Ranch Uranium Deposit, the Ruby Ranch Uranium Deposit as well as several smaller deposits in Wyoming's Powder River Basin."
Ur-Energy's focus has always been uranium. "Our company was formed in 2004 as a pure-play uranium company." Ur-Energy has a number of properties in Wyoming, and in the Canadian Thelon and Baker Lake Basin areas. Right now, their immediate focus is on their Wyoming development and they are currently completing the permitting needed to begin production at Lost Creek Wyoming. "We have about 14 properties in Wyoming; we have one key property that we have been working on, collecting the baseline data starting in 2005 and we submitted our applications to the state of Wyoming and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in late 2007. We are well advanced through all of the permitting process to get ourselves to production," says Mr. Boberg. Ur-Energy in Wyoming alone is estimated to have more than 22 million pounds of uranium, according to their 43-101 technical reports. There is the potential for far more, with an estimate of an additional 24 to 28 million pounds of potential in the Lost Creek area alone.
The permitting process hasn't been easy! "One of the biggest difficulties has been that the regulatory agencies have not had experience permitting operations like this and they were not staffed for it. They had to go through staffing and training. So it has been a difficult process… but it is finally to the point where we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel."
Their short-term goal is to move into production and build a facility capable of processing 2 million pounds per year. They fully expect to be Wyoming's next uranium producer, sometime in early 2011. The plans are progressing and Bill Boberg is hopeful: "It looks like all of the permits will be falling into place in May and June of [2010] … We've selected our general contractor for constructing our plant so we can have that in line for July of this year. Build out will be six months; we should be in the position to start the production process most likely in January 2011."
Of the mining choices available to them – open pit, underground, etc. – Ur-Energy has chosen to use In-Situ Recovery, an effective, eco-friendly, and lower-cost approach to uranium mining. Mr. Boberg describes the process, which is in use all around the world and has been the only way to mine uranium in the US over the last 20 years: "In-Situ Recovery works primarily on deposits that are located in coarse and permeable sandstone… Uranium is deposited by the groundwater flowing through the sandstone. As the water loses its oxygen while flowing through the sandstone, the uranium comes out and concentrates in the sandstone. [In-Situ Recovery] reverses the process by pumping groundwater to the surface through the drill holes we put into the deposit. Then we add oxygen and carbon dioxide to the groundwater and pump it back into the ground and that is sufficient for the uranium to be taken in to solution and it gets pumped to the surface and is stripped from the water in a series of ion exchange columns."
Although the entire process sounds complicated, this is a process that is good for the environment and good for the balance sheet. "Our cash costs are less than $23 per pound so given the current spot price of $45 per pound, that gives us a fair bit of flexibility. If we throw all costs into it (like capital cost recovery), we're in the range of $35 to $38 per pound."
Ur-Energy has a compelling story and investors may find them to be an interesting investment consideration. Their team has impressive experience and their VP Mining and Engineering is Wayne Heili who is an In-Situ Recovery specialist with more than 20 years in uranium mining. As Bill Boberg points out, "We're severely undervalued… We have over $40 million in the bank, which is sufficient to get us up to production. We have a great technical team of 50 people employed by the company right now; about 15 of them will be transitioning to the operation of the mine once we get it going. We have a group of engineers and geologists with significant experience in In-Situ Recovery. We have a terrific initial project… which we expect to be operating for at least 10 years and probably 15 to 20 years."
Their main focus, as Mr. Boberg points out, is "growing the company. We know what we can do organically and we are looking at a variety of other things (from an acquisition standpoint) to see how we can grow the company and make ourselves even stronger for the future and give ourselves significantly more projects in the future, [specifically] companies that are in near-term uranium production."
References:
www.ur-energy.com
Investor Relations & Corporate Office
10758 W Centennial Road, Suite 200 Littleton, CO 80127
Tel: 303-269-7706
Toll-Free: 866-981-4588 ext. 242
E-mail: info@ur-energyusa.com