Nuclear Energy

Texas company restarted operations to capitalise on rising prices.

Uranium producer Encore Energy said on Tuesday (5 March) it expects to deliver the first shipment of yellowcake from its restarted Rosita central processing plant in South Texas next week.

Yellowcake, or U3O8, is a type of uranium concentrate powder used to produce fuel for nuclear power reactors.

Encore is one of a number of mining companies that have restarted operations as the price of nuclear fuel have increased, driven by renewed interest in nuclear energy.

The Corpus Christi, Texas-based company restarted uranium production at its Rosita plant in November last year and is licensed to produce 800,000 pounds of uranium ore annually.

Uranium prices, now standing around $95/lb, have doubled from around $50/lb over the past year as top producers cut output targets as they failed to ramp up production despite reopening mothballed mines and a gap between supply and demand emerged.

Encore expects to deliver the initial shipment to a conversion facility in the week of March 11 before delivering the uranium to a utility customer under sales contracts.

The company also said it entered into a fifth commercial uranium sales contract with deliveries from 2026 to 2032.

“With Rosita underway, we are now moving aggressively to re-start the Alta Mesa Plant, which we expect will commence production as planned in Q2/2024,” said Encore chief executive officer Paul Goranson.

The company said future projects in its production pipeline include the Dewey-Burdock project in South Dakota and the Gas Hills project in Wyoming, along with significant uranium resource endowments in New Mexico.