Top ten US juniors to mid-tiers, outside of precious metals, coal

Nuclear fuel providers again led the largest United States-based junior and mid-tier mining companies valued from US$250 million to US$2 billion, excluding precious metals and coal producers. The data as of July 14 were compiled by Mining Intelligence, part of The Northern Miner group.

There were several adjustments in the running order compared with last year and three new entrants.

1. Uranium Energy

Market cap: US$1.2 billion

Uranium Energy (NYSE-AM: UEC) retook the top spot on the list after a buying spree last year to enter Canada’s premier uranium district, the Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan.

The Corpus Christi, Texas-based company’s $244-million purchase of UEX Corp. last summer beat Denison Mines (TSX: DML) for the Christie Lake, Hidden Bay and Horseshoe-Raven projects on the basin’s eastern side. In October, UEC paid US$146.2 million for Rio Tinto’s (ASX: RIO) Roughrider project. Those deals followed the US$112 million acquisition of Russia’s state-run Uranium One in 2021.

The purchases have helped UEC expand operations focused on the U.S. Southwest in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, as well as Wyoming. UEC has two hub-and-spoke projects in Wyoming and Texas nearing production that may help the company swing into profit after reporting a US$3.8-million loss in the nine months to the end of April. Acquisitions helped UEC increase its uranium sales fivefold to US$125.4 million compared to the same period last year.

UEC holds a US$125 million war chest for buying assets. Physical uranium trading earned the company US$41.8 million profit in the quarter to April 30.

The company has also been buoyed by U.S. and European Union government measures passed this year to block imports of Russian uranium. Russia and its allies, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, account for nearly half of the uranium powering U.S. nuclear plants.

UEC’s Irigaray plant in Wyoming is slated to produce 2.5 million lb. per year with plans to increase output to 4 million pounds. The Hobson processing plant in Texas would produce 4 million lb. per year from five satellite projects, three of which have been approved.

UEC also holds a major equity stake in the metal’s sole royalty company, Uranium Royalty (TSXV: URC; NASDAQ: UROY).

2. Energy Fuels

Market cap: US$1 billion

Energy Fuels (TSX: EFR; NYSE: UUUU), the leading producer of uranium in the U.S., fell to second spot this year, losing about US$200,000 in market value as costs mounted for several uranium projects.

The Denver-based company reported first-quarter earnings of US$114.3 million, primarily due to sale of its Alta Mesa property for US$120 million to enCore Energy Corp (TSXV: EU; NYSE: EU)  and sales of uranium and vanadium with a total gross margin of 57%.

In February, Energy Fuels closed the acquisition of the 151-sq.-km rare earth elements Bahia project in Brazil that will supply the White Mesa plant in Utah as it continues to also process uranium.

It plans to produce 3,000 to 10,000 tonnes of monazite sand per year or 1,500 to 5,000 tonnes of total rare earth oxides a year. The company calls it a low-cost, long-term source of monazite for rare earths, titanium from ilmenite and rutile, and zircon for zirconium. 

In April, the White Mesa plant delivered shipments of uranium, vanadium and rare earth oxides for the first time in the same week, showing how it aims to become a critical minerals hub.

The company plans to sell 560,000 lb. of uranium and focus production exclusively this year on rare earths. It aims to process about 600 tonnes of monazite into as much as 170 tonnes of total rare earth oxides this year, followed by as much as 700 tonnes of monazite by early 2024. It also wants to begin producing up to 1,000 tonnes of rare earth neodymium-praseodymium as it spends US$25 million to expand capacity at White Mesa. It aims to start producing rare earth elements dysprosium and terbium in 2027.

Energy Fuels also has the La Sal complex of uranium and vanadium mines and projects in Utah, and the Pinyon Plain uranium mine in Arizona.

In addition, it has projects in New Mexico, Arizona, and Wyoming, and where it plans for up to 1.5 million lb. of annual uranium output across a 15-year mine life at its Sheep Mountain project.

3. American Battery Technology

Market cap: US$475.3 million

American Battery Technology (US-OTC: ABML), an aspiring lithium producer in Nevada, joins the ranking at No. 3 after the Biden administration chose the company to build the state’s first extraction plant for the light metal while investors clamour for stocks in the green energy boom.

The Reno-based company plans to build a US$115-million pilot plant 50 km east at Fernley which will process ore from its Tonopah Flats project located 300 km to the southeast. Washington is funding US$57 million of the cost through last year’s infrastructure-building legislation. The plant is to process 5,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide monohydrate a year with the option of expanding annual output to 30,000 tonnes. Plans include a 30,000-sq.-metre lithium-ion battery recycling facility.

ABT’s 42-sq.-km property holds 4.8 billion inferred tonnes grading 561 parts per million of lithium for 14.3 million tonnes lithium carbonate equivalent, according to a technical report released in February.

Tonopah holds so much of the light metal “people don’t know what to do with it all,” according to a recent account by The Northern Miner’s Henry Lazenby. Indeed, lithium is abundant on the planet, but plants to process it outside of China are rare as the West scrambles to reduce reliance on the Asian giant.

ABT says it’s developing its own processing using selective leach extraction to lower costs by reducing chemical reagents, water use and resultant contaminants. It’s refining methods at the University of Nevada Reno’s Nevada Center for Applied Research.

The company had US$12.6. million in cash at the end of the first quarter as it embarked on recommendations in the technical report to spend US$4.9 million for drilling, studies and metallurgy for a prefeasibility report.

4. enCore Energy Corp

Market Cap: US$343.7 million

A new entrant to the list this year at the fourth spot is enCore Energy which is focused on uranium production in southern Texas. The company operates the Rosita, Alta Mesa and Kingsville Dome Central in-situ recovery uranium processing plants licensed and built for a 2023-2024 production capacity of 3.6 million lb. of yellowcake.

Encore has set itself the goal of achieving yearly uranium production rates of 3 million lb. uranium oxide per year by the end of 2026 and 5 million lb. by the end of 2028.

The company’s executive chairman William Sheriff was an early participant in the uranium renaissance as the co-founder and executive chairman of Energy Metals when it was acquired in 2008 for US$1.8 billion. He is credited for compiling U.S. history’s largest domestic uranium resource base.

According to the company, its assets are in a prolific district for sandstone-hosted ISR production, with historical production of about 80 million lb. of uranium.

The Rosita Central Processing Plant (CPP), one of enCore’s critical assets, is licensed and built about 97 km west of Corpus Christi and covers more than 14 sq. km of mineral rights and plant facilities. The facility has a production capacity of 800,000 lb. of uranium oxide per year, with 2023 output forecast at 200,000 pounds.

The Rosita CPP will receive uranium-loaded resins from remote South Texas projects and satellite wellfields.

Located nearby is also the Kingsville Dome Centra ISR processing plant which is licensed and on standby for potential future feed.

Alta Mesa is the company’s other cornerstone growth asset, with a production capacity of about 1.5 million lb uranium slated to start in 2024.

5. Intrepid Potash

Market Cap: US$305.5 million

Denver, Colo.-based Intrepid Potash (NYSE: IPI), a fertilizer manufacturer, falls to fifth place in this year’s ranking from third in 2022. The company is the largest producer of potassium chloride, also known as muriate of potash, in the U.S. It owns three mines, all in the western U.S., near Carlsbad, N.M., and Moab and Wendover in Utah.

As of the March quarter, Intrepid saw an increase in demand for potash and its specialty fertilizer Trio (potassium, magnesium and sulphate), with sales volumes totalling 89,000 tons and 65,000 tons, respectively. Despite the first-quarter profitability being impacted by lower pricing compared to last year, the company said in early May that potash pricing remains elevated compared to recent historical levels, with U.S. corn belt potash trading at about US$490 per ton. Intrepid completed the Well 45 and 46 drilling projects at its solar solution potash mine in Moab in early July, in time for the 2023 evaporation season. The wells are expected to boost brine grades and output.

Similarly, the company announced in mid-June the completion of the first phase of its HB injection pipeline at the Carlsbad Solar solution mine, which will triple the average injection rate. The second phase of the buildout is winding its way through the permitting process.

6. Ur-Energy

Market Cap: US$266.3 million

Dropping to the sixth spot this year from fourth last year is Ur-Energy (TSX: URE; NYSE-AM: URE), which is currently restarting commercial production at its Lost Creek ISR uranium facility in Wyoming.

The company expects to ramp up cash flow on the back of a production restart at the mine due to improving market conditions and some favourable long-term contracts. It’s already sold 100,000 lb. of uranium oxide at US$64.47 per lb. this year and is contracted to sell another 180,000 lb., with projected sales to reach over US$17 million in 2023.

Ur-Energy is the lowest-cost producer of uranium in the U.S. and has a strong track record of maintaining low costs due to the quality of the orebody in Wyoming.

Ur-Energy’s Lost Creek production plant has a capacity of 1.2 million lb. per year, while its second facility, Shirley Basin, is licensed for 1 million lb. per year but has not been built yet. The company aims to secure additional contracts to reach 2.2 million lb. per year, which could help justify the buildout at Shirley Basin.

7. Itafos

Market Cap: US$210.2 million

Itafos (TSX: IFOS) is another new entrant to this year’s ranking of the top U.S. miners by market cap, placing seventh.

Although it doubled its 2022 net income to US$114.7 million, the company announced on March 13 it was considering strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value. Private capital fund Castlelake LP backs the company and has moved to strengthen its business over the past year. Measures have included work to extend the life of the Conda phosphate mine in Idaho, extending the maturity and reducing the cost of Itafos’ debt, improving its capital structure through deleveraging and strengthening the company’s management and board.

Its first-quarter results were impacted by lower phosphate prices compared with 2022.

The company received permits for its  Husky 1/North Dry Ridge (H1/NDR) mine project this spring,  allowing it to extend Conda’s mine life with production through 2037, and the potential to further extend the resource life through leases and third-party arrangements.

The company also holds the Arrais and Santana phosphate businesses in Brazil, the Araxa rare earths and niobium mine in Brazil, and the feasibility-level Farim phosphate project in Guinea-Bissau.

8 NioCorp Developments

Market cap: US$149.6 million

Dropping from fifth place in last year’s rankings, NioCorp Developments (TSX: NB; US-OTC: NIOBF) is focused on developing its Elk Creek niobium, scandium, titanium and rare earths project in southeast Nebraska.

In early July, the Colorado-based company made an initial agreement with automaker Stellantis N.V. (NYSE: STLA) on access to rare earth product from the Elk Creek plant and mine.

The non-binding term sheet lays out a 10-year offtake contract for specific amounts of neodymium-praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium oxide. The volumes will be determined in a definitive agreement, subject to project financing.

The agreement came just months after NioCorp reported significant results in high-purity critical mineral recoveries, including rare earths at its demonstration plant in Trois-Rivieres, Que.

In April, it reported that a “process breakthrough” in niobium and titanium recovery at the L3 Process Development facility supports the technical feasibility of separating high-purity oxides of important magnetic rare earths from ore extracted at Elk Creek.

And in February, NioCorp said recoveries in a high-purity mixed concentrate of rare earths at L3 likely exceeded 92% and would meet commercial purity specifications for rare earth oxides.

Elk Creek has an indicated resource of 632,900 tonnes of total rare earths oxides (TREO), including 26,900 tonnes of praseodymium, 98,900 tonnes of neodymium, 2,300 tonnes of terbium and 9,100 tonnes of dysprosium, according to a 2022 feasibility study. It also hosts total probable reserves of 36.6 million tonnes, including niobium grading 0.81% for 297,278 tonnes, titanium grading 2.92% for 1 million tonnes and scandium grading 70.2 parts per million for 2,573 tonnes.

The company plans to release an updated feasibility study this year that incorporates rare earth economics.

9 Texas Mineral Resources

Market cap: US$77.2 million

Exploration company Texas Mineral Resources (US-OTC: TMRC) is focused on heavy rare earths, uranium and beryllium at its flagship Round Top Mountain project near Sierra Blanca, Texas, about 142 km southeast of El Paso.

The Round Top deposit contains 11 heavy rare earths, and five light rare earths. The project is under an 80-20 joint venture between privately held USA Rare Earth and Texas Mineral Resources.

A 2019 preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for Round Top estimated annual production of 2,213 tonnes of REEs, of which over 1,900 tonnes would be heavy REEs, over a 20-year mine life from an open pit mine. The estimation was based on mining only 14% of the current mineral resources at the project.

The explorer has over the last year focused more attention on the Black Hawk silver/nickel/cobalt mining district in Grant Cty., New Mexico. It has been conducting geophysical exploration for silver around the historic and high-grade Alhambra mine since October 2021 when it executed an option agreement with Santa Fe Gold. Alhambra was mined in the 19th century and opened briefly again between the 1950s and 1970s.

Geophysical surveys in the area detected 16 significant anomalies that TMRC plans to target in a future drill program, the company said in July. It also plans a feasibility study for the Black Hawk deposits.

10 Excelsior Mining

Market cap: US$52.8 million

Excelsior Mining (TSX: MIN; US-OTC: EXMGF) holds its flagship Gunnison copper project, the past-producing Johnson Camp copper mine (JCM), and the Peabody Sill and Strong and Harris copper-zinc-silver deposit, all located in Cochise Cty., Arizona.

An amended permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency became active in June, allowing for well stimulation at the Gunnison ISR project. Well stimulation enhances the flow of ISR solution through injection to recovery wells and improves copper productivity.

Excelsior plans to conduct field trials of the wells in the second half of 2023.

In February, Excelsior released a technical report on an update to its PEA of the JCM heap leach project, released in March 2022. The update incorporated results from a 2022 drill program and proposed the use of sulphide leaching technology to enhance recoveries at an open pit at JCM.

The updated PEA estimates an operation of 196 million mined tons for 492 million lb. copper over about 20 years.Using a 7.5% discount rate, the PEA estimated JCM would have an after-tax net present value of US$180 million and an after-tax internal rate of return of 30.4%. Initial mine capital was pegged at US$58.9 million and operating costs at US$2.24 per pound.