My interest has been captured by the discussions around the Extract Complex. As an ignoramus on the subject of the uranium market and the underlying science/technology I am interested in becoming better educated. To that end I thought it might be useful to set up a thread which could act as a repository of factual information, newsflow, analysis and opinion. In the event that I ever get my head around the subject I might have a go at an entry in the Wiki, but right now I couldn't begin to do that.
As a novice, only just getting to grips with this subject, the first issue which has struck me is shown in this chart
Global mined output is 115 million pounds a year, compared with consumption of about 180 million pounds that he expects to grow at between 2 and 3 percent per year.
The shortfall has been made up by stockpiles, as well as annual sales of about 24 million pounds of uranium from decommissioned Russian nuclear weapons
source: Cameco
I'm coming at this from a background in oil, where the economic realities dictate that production = consumption give or take a few storage tanks and the odd strategic reserve. If cconsumption falls, then you just don't produce the stuff, you leave it in the ground. Consumption never exceeds production by any significant margin. Oil is not stockpiled to any very significant degree. It's just not economic to do so.
The idea that for uranium, production = 2/3 x consumption is eye opening. The fact that a significant shortfall can be made up from stockpiles is surprising. The fact that much (most?) of these stockpiles are in effect recycled nuclear weapons is mind boggling. This does not sound like a stable situation which can continue for very long.
As always with Stockopedia, I'm never sure what should be included in the thread header and what should be incorporated into subsequent posts. I'll stop here for now and add some separate posts for discrete items of information.
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