You may not have noticed it – a press release sent out by Areva recently that got a bit of play in the Media but not much. It concerns the decision to delay the start of its $1-billion Trekkopje uranium mine in Namibia just when it’s nearing completion. Covered in Mining Weekly and by NBC the reason cited was, unsurprisingly, current market conditions.
Now, let’s take a moment to consider what this means at an industry level. If the future growth in demand is there and, based on the number of reactors under construction we know it is, then what this means is that an estimated 3 000 t of uranium oxide per year will now not be coming online in 2014 – a year after the end of the HEU agreement (forecast for 2013) will remove the industry’s largest secondary source of uranium.
My opinion is that on this occasion what’s bad news for Areva happens to be good news for long-term uranium prices.
Dev Randhawa
