Production at Energy Fuels’ (TSX: EFR; NYSE: UUUU) Pinyon Plain mine in northern Arizona almost doubled in June from April, company totals show. Shares rose.
Uranium oxide (U3O8) output at Pinyon Plain hit 230,661 lb. last month, boosting the second-quarter total to 638,700 lb., Energy Fuels said Wednesday in a statement.
The production graded 3.51% U3O8 for June and 2.23% for the second quarter, higher than the 2.14% grade reported for May production but lower than the 260,000 lb. produced in that month. Mining began at Pinyon Plain in late 2023.
“Today highlights that Energy Fuels could simultaneously be one of the U.S.’s largest uranium and rare earth producers for strategic/critical metal significance,” SCP Resource Finance analyst Justin Chan said in a note on Wednesday.
“In my nearly 50-year history in the uranium industry, I have not seen any other U.S. mine like Pinyon Plain,” Energy Fuels President and CEO Mark S. Chalmers said in a release. “Production and drill results to date indicate that it will be the highest-grade uranium deposit to be mined in the U.S. over the past 30 years, and I believe it is likely to be one of the highest-grade uranium deposits mined in U.S. history.”
Spot price tailwinds
The June output numbers come after uranium spot prices gained 8.55% in June, a significant rise over May’s increase of 5.5% on continued investor confidence in uranium as the United States government continues its push towards nuclear energy.
Shares of Energy Fuels rose 8.5% to $8.54 apiece at the close Wednesday in Toronto, for a market capitalization of $1.84 billion. The stock has traded in a 12-month range of $4.59 to $10.44.
Total production for the second quarter is well above the full-year guidance run rate of 880,000 to 1.4 million lb. mined and 700,000 to 1 million lb. processed for 2025, Chan said.
Rising grades
The grade is also higher the 1.6 million lb. at 0.6% U3O8 reserves, he added.
“Pinyon could contribute 1 million lb. [per] year for five to seven years if grades continue to reconcile well above plan,” he said.
After selling 50,000 lb. of U3O8 on the spot market in the second quarter at an average price of $77 per pound, Energy Fuels expects sales to keep increasing. It forecasts selling 140,000 lb. of U3O8 in the third quarter and 160,000 lb. in the fourth.
Energy Fuels’ White Mesa mill in Utah is the country’s only producing conventional uranium mill.
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