The uncertainty surrounding uranium supply has many industry hands wondering if sharpies like Mitchell will screw them. Last December Mitchell bought 100,000 pounds of uranium for $19.50 a pound and has been sitting on it as it appreciates. Industry newsletter FreshFuel labels Mitchell's endeavors "speculative" and portrays him as someone who doesn't care what the industry thinks. "They think I'm an opportunist," says Mitchell.
In fairness, he has hardly cornered the uranium market. Adit controls 2 million pounds, and two other funds have 4.5 million between them.
Mitchell, 51, formed Adit only last year, after a long career in institutional sales. He noticed that nuke industry behemoth Cameco was locked into long-term uranium contracts of $15 per pound when the spot price was moving much higher. Cameco, France's Areva and Britain's Rio Tinto (nyse: RTP - news - people ) among them control 60% of the world's uranium supply, so he wondered if they understood that the rising prices weren't a blip.
What convinced him that this was a trend with legs was a visit to a tiny Texas mine called Vasquez, whose anticipated 400,000-pound yearly output was a pittance. Buyers from two huge utility companies, Duke Energy (nyse: DUK - news - people ) and Dominion Resources (nyse: D - news - people ), were on hand. Mitchell wondered: Why were these big utilities showing up at such a small mine if they weren't fretting about supply?
