Vancouver conference Stockhouse report Canadian uranium explorers in focus at Vancouver investment conference
Junior mining remains a tough market for investors. But industry officials see upside potential in the uranium sector, particularly among companies with projects in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin.
One senior uranium industry executive said the key to higher stock valuations is getting Japan to turn on one of its shuttered nuclear reactors.
“As soon as this happens you will see our stocks move,’’ said Dev Randawa, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Fission Uranium Corp. (TSX: V.FCU, Stock Forum) during a speech to the Cambridge House Canadian Investor Conference in Vancouver, Sunday.
Fission is developing the high grade Triple R deposit which is located on its Patterson Lake South project in Saskatchewan. The Triple R is estimated to host an indicated and inferred resource of over 105 million pounds of uranium.
However, in spite of Fission’s success, uranium stocks have suffered from the impact of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in March 2011, which resulted from a tsunami, causing a meltdown of three of the plant’s six nuclear reactors.
It sent uranium prices plunging from US$70 a pound to a low up US$28 in May of 2014, before a rebound to the US$35 level. Randawa said the uranium industry doesn’t benefit from the romance that is associated with other commodities like gold and silver. However, he said he is confident that the price of uranium will move higher sooner or later.
“The sector needs love and the sector will get love,’’ Randawa said.
Fission is currently working to complete a preliminary economic assessment at Triple R, a move that company officials regard as a key milestone for the project.
However, one Vancouver based resource fund manager said he expects Fission to bring in an Asian partner, one who might wish to take something like a 20% stake in the exploration company in order to gain a foothold in the Athabasca Basin.
“That’s the next step,’’ said Marin Katusa, publisher of Katusa Research.
Katusa’s comments are a reference to major players in China who have raise billions of dollars for nuclear reactors that will eventually require feedstock.
If an Asian partner were to step up and provide funding for a uranium processing facility in Saskatchewan, it could lead to a 10-fold increase in Fission’s stock price, Katusa said.
Meanwhile, Katusa said he is bullish on the outlook for Brazil Resources Inc. (TSX: V.BRI, Stock Forum), which has a 75% stake in the Rea uranium project, covering 88,400 hectares on the western portion of the Athabasca Basin. The project is located 75 kilometres east of Patterson Lake.
The remaining 25% is held by Areva Canada, a unit of the French multinational, which also has major uranium operations in Saskatchewan, including the Maybelle high-grade uranium deposit adjacent to Rea.
Katusa is predicting that Brazil will see a 50% rise in the value of its shares within the next 12 months.
Skyharbour Resources Ltd. (TSX: V.SYH, Stock Forum) remains one of the largest landholders in the Saskatchewan Basin, with interests in 700,000 acres in the vicinity of Fission’s Patterson Lake property.
It also has a 100% interest in the Falcon Point project which is thought to contain 7 million pounds of inferred uranium, plus a 5.3 million pound Thorium resource. Thorium is a radioactive chemical element that could be used to generate power.
Skyharbour President and CEO Jordan Trimble said it is worth noting that three of the key players in the region recently raised over $60 million from bought deal financings. The trio include NexGen Resources Inc. (TSX: V.EXG, Stock Forum), Fission and Denison Mines Inc. (TSX: T.DML, Stock Forum).
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