In financial news, some analysts believe that uranium once again become the hottest metal commodity. In an interview at the World Nuclear Association's annual Symposium Chief Executive Neal Froneman of Uranium One stated "The long term fundamentals for uranium have never been better...demand is understated and supply is overstated."
The spot price of uranium peaked in June 2007 at $136. Since then the price has dropped to $90. Froneman said that he feels we've hit the bottom.
Speculators had forced the price of uranium to climb up all year long until it peaked in June 2007. Traditionally summer is a slower season for energy consumption and utilities do not buy as much uranium in summer as they do in winter when energy is needed for heating. As such some analysts predict that once the utility companies beging to acquire more uranium in the third and fourth quarter of this year the spot price for uranium will climb.
Uranium future supply has been hurt by the failure of Cigar Lake. Before the catastrophe at Cigar Lake the mine was expected to produce 18 million pounds of uranium a year, or roughly 17 percent of the world's supply. This project's production date is now in question. The earliest date to begin production at Cigar Lake would be in 2011.
By Kyle Ware
