Up until 2009, Canada was the world’s largest producer of uranium, according to the World Nuclear Association, having accounted for roughly 22 per cent of global production.
Although Kazakhstan has overtaken the role as the world’s top producer of the fuel used in nuclear power, Canada still ranks second and produces an estimated 13 per cent of uranium.
In tandem with this, the nation also has the world’s largest deposits of high-grade uranium, which grades up to 20 per cent uranium, making it 100 times greater than the global average, as per the Government of Canada.
All of this is to say that Canada is rich in uranium and, in conjunction, the companies producing it.
Case in point, Cameco (TSX:CCO) is Canada’s largest producer of uranium as well as the global top producer. The company has its operations set up in Northern Saskatchewan, which is where all operating uranium mines and mills are located in Canada.
While Cameco might be one of the first companies investors think of when it comes to Canadian uranium stocks, plenty of others have a massive upside potential for consideration.
Choosing the top nine Canadian uranium stocks
Stocks in this list were chosen through TradingView’s stock screener under the Canadian stocks other metals/minerals sector and sorted by year-to-date performance in descending order.
The companies in the list below are sorted in order of year-to-date percentage gains from top to bottom. While the companies are listed on Canadian stock exchanges, some of them have operations in other countries that might still be enticing to investors. All numbers and figures are current as of July 18 and are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.
With that in mind, here are nine Canadian uranium stocks, in brief:
- District Metals (TSXV:DMX)
- Greenridge Exploration (CSE:GXP)
- CanAlaska Uranium (TSXV:CVV)
- Myriad Uranium (CSE:M)
- Western Uranium & Vanadium (CSE:WUC)
- Denison Mines (TSX:DML)
- Fission Uranium (TSX:FCU)
- Cameco (TSX:CCO)
- Premier American Uranium (TSXV:PUR)
Top 9 Canadian uranium stocks
Market cap: $44.69 million; share price: $0.35; year-to-date increase: 105.88 per cent
District Metals is a Vancouver-based energy metals and polymetallic explorer company with five uranium projects in Sweden. The Viken property is the company’s primary focus, which is host to a uranium-vanadium deposit
The project spans 37,211 hectares and had significant exploration and development that led to the definition of large historic polymetallic resource estimates between 2010 and 2014.
The Viken Deposit is also notably one of the world’s largest deposits by total historic mineral resources of uranium and vanadium.
Market cap: $25.63 million; share price: $0.83; year-to-date increase: 80.43 per cent
Based out of Vancouver, Greenridge Exploration is focused on developing critical mineral projects in North America.
The company has a portfolio of projects in Tier 1 uranium districts, including in the Thelon Basin and Athabasca Basin where it is host to multiple unconformity-style uranium deposits.
In the Athabasca Basin, Greenridge Exploration is focused on the Carpenter Lake Uranium Projects that includes seven mineral claims spanning more than 13,387 hectares. Its Nut Lake Uranium Project is in the Thelon Basin and covers an area of 5,853 hectares.
GreenRidge’s other uranium projects, the Snook and Ranger Lake, projects cover approximately 4,899 hectares and 20,782 hectares respectively, and are in Western Ontario.
Market cap: $99.42 million; share price: $0.63; year-to-date increase: 70.27 per cent
With its headquarters out of Vancouver, CanAlaska Uranium is focused on exploringuranium, nickel and diamond properties.
The company has an interest in 350,000 hectares in the Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan that includes its West McArthur project strategically located near Cameco and Orano Canada’s McArthur River-Key Lake joint venture.
CanAlaska Uranium staked the West McArthur property in 2004 before optioning it to Mitsubishi Development – a Mitsubishi Corp. subsidiary – in April 2007. The company purchased Mitsubishi’s 50 per cent interest back in 2016 to regain its 100 per cent interest.
In February 2016 the company signed an option agreement with Cameco and in 2018 it resumed operatorship of the property with Cameco retaining 30 per cent as a joint venture partner. The Pike Zone was then discovered in 2022 on the West McArthur project.
Market cap: $12.96 million; share price: $0.24; year-to-date increase: 55.56 per cent
Also based out of Vancouver, Myriad Uranium is advancing its Copper Mountain Uranium project in Wyoming.
Wyoming boasts the largest known uranium ore reserves in the United States and produces roughly 69 per cent of the country’s mined uranium. It is also highly prospective for large-scale uranium discoveries.
The company optioned the Copper Mountain Uranium Project in October 2023 and can obtain a 75 per cent earnable interest in the project from Rush Rare Metals (CSE:RSH). Since 2023 the companies have been working together to consolidate the remaining deposits and prospects within the district area.
Copper Mountain also has the potential to be one of the largest uranium projects in Wyoming and contains a number of advanced prospects, exploration targets, and past-producing mines that will eventually be explored.
Market cap: $103.90 million; share price: $1.88; year-to-date increase: 18.99 per cent
Western Uranium & Vanadium is a Toronto-based company focused on uranium and vanadium resource properties in the United States.
The company is a near-term producer with a range of projects under its belt, including Sunday Mine Complex, San Rafael, Sage, Hansen/Taylor Ranch and other additional properties.
The Sunday Mine Complex is in Colorado and consists of five individual mines: the Sunday Mine, the Carnation Mine, the Saint Jude Mine, the West Sunday Mine and the Topaz Mine.
Over in Utah, Western Uranium holds the San Rafael Uranium Project, which forms a single contiguous claim block covered by 146 unpatented federal lode mining claims. The Sage Mine is in San Juan County, Utah, and San Miguel County, Colorado. The Hansen/Taylor Ranch Uranium Project encompasses more than 13,500 acres.
Market cap: $2.41 billion; share price: $2.70; year-to-date increase: 18.94 per cent
Based out of Toronto, Denison Mines is a uranium exploration and development company also focused in the Athabasca Basin.
The company’s flagship project is Wheeler River in which Denison has a 95 per cent interest and is the largest undeveloped high-grade uranium project in the eastern region of the Athabasca Basin. Wheeler River is also to host two uranium deposits: Phoenix and Gryphon and boasts probable mineral reserves of 109.4 million pounds of uranium oxide.
Denison Mines also holds a 22.5 per cent ownership interest in the McClean Lake joint venture, which includes several uranium deposits and the McClean Lake uranium mill; a 25.17 per cent interest in the Midwest Main and Midwest A deposits; and a 67.41 per cent interest in the Heldeth Túé and Huskie deposits on the Waterbury Lake property.
Market cap: $1.05 billion; share price: $1.23; year-to-date increase: 17.14 per cent
Fission Uranium has its headquarters out of Kelowna, British Columbia, and is advancing its high-grade uranium mine and mill Patterson Lake South project in the Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan.
The project is host to the Triple R deposit, which is a high-grade and near-surface uranium deposit that occurs within a 3.18 kilometres mineralized trend along the Patterson Lake Conductive Corridor.
Additionally, roughly 17 contiguous claims span 31,039 hectares within the property. Fission Uranium also has under its belt the West Cluff property comprising three claims totalling 11,148 hectares in the western region of the Athabasca Basin.
Market cap: $27.66 billion; share price: $63.68; year-to-date increase: 13.63 per cent
Cameco is one of the world’s largest uranium companies and is the largest uranium company in Canada.
The company’s uranium projects are what it calls properties that can be developed into uranium-producing operations. Its most significant properties are the Millennium deposit in Saskatchewan and the Yeelirrie and Kintyre deposits in Australia.
Meanwhile, its uranium mining operations are in tier-one mining and milling operations that have been licensed to produce more than 30 million pounds of uranium concentrates annually.
In Canada, Cameco’s projects are in the Athabasca Basin and include Cigar Lake, McArthur River/Key Lake and Rabbit Lake.
Cameco also owns a 40 per cent share in a joint venture in Inkai’s in situ recovery uranium mine in Kazakhstan with the remaining 60 per cent belonging to Kazatomprom, which is majority-owned by the Kazakhstan government.
Over in the United States, Cameco’s Smith Ranch-Highland and Crow Butte operations use in situ recovery methods.
Market cap: $58.71 million; share price: $1.78; year-to-date increase: 12.90 per cent
Based out of Toronto, Premier American Uranium is another Canadian-listed company focused on uranium projects in the United States.
The company’s projects are strategically located in the Grants Mineral Belt of New Mexico, the Great Divide Basin of Wyoming and the Uravan Mineral Belt of Colorado.
Premier American notably holds a 100 per cent lease-hold interest in the Cebolleta Uranium Project in New Mexico, while its Cyclone Uranium Project in Wyoming covers roughly 25,500 acres with more than 1,060 claims that span 21,220 acres and seven state leases making up the final 4,280 acres.
Over in Colorado, its projects include the Monogram Mesa project, the Atkinson Mesa Project and the Outlaw Mesa and Slick Rock projects.
How to buy Canadian uranium stocks
Buying Canadian uranium stocks is no different than purchasing any other kind of stock in Canada. These stocks are listed across the country’s primary exchanges – the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange and the Canadian Securities Exchange – and can be purchased through a range of platforms.
With that in mind, investing in uranium stocks can be done as follows:
- Choose a stock trading platform, such as Questrade or Wealthsimple where investors can invest independently without financial advice. Investors can sign up for a managed account or with any one of Canada’s Big Six Banks – including Royal Bank, TD Bank, Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank, CIBC and National Bank – where someone can monitor your investments.
- Choose the stocks you want to invest in by searching the name or the ticker symbol. Before doing so, evaluate the uranium stock’s business plan and allocate only what you feel comfortable with to keep a balanced portfolio.
- Place your order.
- That’s it, you now own a uranium stock.
Risks of investing in Canadian uranium stocks
Like any other market, uranium stocks are not immune to fluctuating markets, so investors should always conduct their own due diligence before investing.
Additionally, the uranium market in particular is often tied to how the market is performing and other factors such as regulatory environment, geopolitical risks, how long projects take before coming online and the overall perception of nuclear power.
And as always, investors shouldn’t put all their eggs in one basket in one industry. A balanced portfolio is key to reap the benefits of any industry.
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