URZ called #5 stock to watch From:https://www.miningfeeds.com/2012/04/02/5-mining-stocks-to-watch-in-2012-part-2/
Uranerz Energy Corp. (Stock Profile - TSX:URZ & AMEX:URZ)
Uranerz Energy has been at it for a while now. The company was formed after its namesakes, Uranerz Exploration and Mining Ltd. and Uranerz U.S.A. Inc. (Uranerz Group), were acquired in 1998 by Cameco (Stock Profile - TSX:CCO & NYSE:CCJ). At the time, the Uranerz Group was the world's third largest uranium producer.
Uranerz Energy has a strong team of mining personnel and advisors, many of whom are former officers, senior management and employees of the original Uranerz Group. The team came together years after Cameco's acquisition. Experienced management has helped the company navigate a "Long and Winding Road" including inception in 2005, public listing on the NYSE Amex in 2006, and inter-listing on the TSX in 2007. The company has raised close to $100 million.
Today, seven years later, Uranerz Energy is approaching near term commercial uranium production and is currently constructing its first in-situ recovery mine in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. Uranium production from the mine is expected to commence in the second half of 2012. Already in place, the company has two long-term uranium sales agreements for a portion of its planned production with U.S. based utilities, negotiated when long-term uranium prices were between $65 and $70 per pound. Still outstanding, Uranerz is waiting for a license on its deep disposal well from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.
From the company's most recent letter to shareholders:
"The United States is the largest market in the world for uranium; it has the largest nuclear fleet of any country with 104 reactors. U.S. uranium mines produced four million pounds of U3O8 in 2011, but annual uranium consumption far exceeded that, at over 50 million pounds."
Dundee Securities Vice President and Senior Mining Analyst David A. Talbot has a $4.25 price target on Uranerz Energy. Talbot states, "Hopefully, (Uranerz) permitting process is coming to a close as well. It plans to build an ISR plant in Wyoming and ramp up to about 1.6 million pounds of uranium." Uranerz shares closed today at $2.53 on the TSX Exchange.