TSX winners Aug. 21-25 include Cameco, Teck, Perpetua and Laramide

Over the Aug. 21-25 trading period, the S&P/TSX Composite Index added 17.36 points or 0.09%, to 19,835.75. The S&P/TSX Global Mining Index inched up 1.73 points or 1.7% to 102.88 and the S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index registered a 0.91-point or 0.5% rise to 182.42. The S&P/TSX Global Gold Index rose by 8.97 points or 3.4% to 269.08 and spot gold ended the week off US$21.43 per oz., or 1.1% higher, at US$1,915.13 per ounce. 

Cameco shares rose $2.55 each or 5.4% to end the week at $49.50 on no news. The stock is up 58.6% year-to-date as the world’s second largest producer of uranium after Kazatomprom benefits from a strengthening uranium price. When Cameco reported its second-quarter results in early August, the Saskatoon-based company said it received an average realized price of US$49.41 per lb. U3O8 in the second quarter, up from US$46.30 in the same period of 2022. Measured in Canadian dollars, the realized price has risen by 14% to $67.05 per lb. from $58.74 per lb. Since March, the uranium price has risen to US$58.25 per lb. from under US$50 per. lb. Cameco produced 12% of the world’s total uranium production in 2022 at 5,675 tonnes. 

Teck Resources’ B-class shares rose by $1.45 to $54.40 and its A-class shares by $2.28 to $54.78 over the week. Canada’s largest diversified miner is entertaining bids for its metallurgical coal business, consisting of its Elk Valley assets in British Columbia. Bloomberg has reported that Mumbai-based JSW Steel is one of the bidders, and is looking to buy a 20% to 40% stake in Teck’s coal business, which could be valued at more than $8 billion. Teck was put in play with a US$23-billion bid by Glencore earlier this year that it rejected. 

Gold and antimony-focused Perpetua Resources gained 24% or 91¢ to close at $4.70 per share, while uranium-focused Laramide Resources rose 21.3% or 10¢ apiece to end the week at 57¢. Both companies announced grants from the U.S. government. 

The Department of Defense has awarded up to US$15.5 million to Perpetua Resources through an Ordnance Technology Initiative Agreement to demonstrate a domestic supply chain for antimony. Perpetua holds the Stibnite gold-silver-antimony project in Idaho. As part of the agreement, it plans to conduct a pilot plant study to produce antimony trisulphide to military requirements, deliver a modular pilot for the DoD to use in testing, and design a full-scale process circuit. The company has also received $24.8 million in Defense Production Act funding to advance the project. 

Laramide’s U.S. subsidiary NuFuels Inc. Received US$1.8 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to fund joint research with the Los Alamos National Laboratory on groundwater restoration technology related to advanced in-situ recovery (ISR). Laramide has two uranium deposits in New Mexico that are amenable to ISR, Crownpoint and Churchrock, both located on one licence in the state’s northwest.