RSDS - Another week means another gain for uranium spot prices. The price of yellowcake for immediate delivery rose for the third week in a row, this time posting a $4-gain to US$84 a pound of U3O8.
Industry indicator TradeTech reported the five-per-cent gain in the October 26 edition of its Nuclear Market Review, holding two sales responsible. As was the case in recent weeks where the spot price budged upward, one of two transactions posted---for 100,000 pounds of U3O8 equivalent---was priced slightly above the metal's current spot price.
Analysts warn much of the increased market activity is driven by speculators and hedge funds with a renewed thirst for cashing in on the nuclear renaissance and that a price gap still exists between willing buyers and wiling sellers.
But one cannot ignore record oil prices, which are reminding investors of the need to diversify their energy portfolios. Bloomberg reported crude oil rose to another record---$93.80 a barrel---just days after it beat a previous record by jumping above $92 a barrel.
The last jump followed escalating tensions between the United States and Iran, the holder of the planet's second-biggest oil reserves. This increase comes after Mexico shut a fifth of its oil production, reducing daily output by about 600,000 barrels as a storm passed through the Gulf of Mexico.
And uranium prices rose across the board. The Resource World composite uranium stock index, an index based on the performance of nearly 100 uranium companies, gained 19.49 points Monday to close at 1,306.06. The index is now cruising at heights unseen, having blown past the 1,200-point threshold it's been flirting with all month.
The index last visited the 1,200-point range in July, before spot prices tumbled from $138 a pound U3O8 to $75 a pound. After a few months in the dumps, the index has now recovered at a time when the uranium sector is again showing some strength.
Still, analysts remind investors to keep focused and not to let weekly fluctuations make or break their big portfolio decisions. The futures market remains stable, with the price of uranium for December delivery sitting at $92 a pound, but the spot market remains thin.
In an interesting news development, an academic expert on nuclear technology told the Canadian Press Monday he fears Canada may miss the nuclear renaissance boat unless it plays ball with Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP).
John Luxat, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council's industrial research chair in nuclear safety analysis, says the country may well miss out on cutting-edge nuclear technology and waste management if Stephen Harper's government continues to sit on the fence when it comes to GNEP.
The U.S.-led partnership has already attracted 16 member countries and the Bush administration is funnelling hundreds of millions of dollars into related research, but Canada's Conservatives have yet to join or comment on the initiative. This has Luxat worried the country's multi-billion-dollar nuclear industry could fall behind the other nuclear players.
Well faz World's largest concentrations of uranium ore High grade ore from the Mi Mida Mine, Lisbon Valley, Utah - you fig. it out who owns it today -
and how much claims RSDS owns in the fabulous mythical rich Lisbon Valley? -
Steen became an instant millionaire and set off a modern day mining boom - His Mi Vida Mine is famous for sitting in the largest high-grade pitchblende (uranium) ore body ever discovered at that time in the United States, last valued at more than 160 Million (1953 dollars - about $1.6 Billion in 2007 fiatz-dollars).
Charlie Steen's mine, Mi Vida - this old mine Lady started the whole uranium boom in the Moab area -
This discovery unleashed a massive "uranium boom" on the Colorado Plateau, and turned tiny Moab, UT into "the uranium capital of the world." The mine closed in the 1980s. High grade ore from the Mi Mida Mine, Lisbon Valley, Utah -