Uranium One mothball another mine

Morning Guys,

I see that Uranium One has mothballed another US domiciled mine - A small one but it all contributes to the supply side tightness narrative.




I think that this leads nicely to two speculations:

(1) Given that Uranium One has such large interests in Kazatomprom's JV's ... have they also deferred sustaining capex at these ISR mines too ?? And thus are the supply side curtailments that we are now seeing out of Kazakhstan more a result of forced declining production (due to lack of capex investment) vs voluntary shut-ins .... I have my suspicions.

(2) I am waiting to see what Rio do with Rossing as their higher priced contracts roll off. I suspect that we are going to see an announcement that this mine is going to be closed too. Rossing is a much larger supply side participant than Willow Creek and will further tighten markets over-and-above what analysts/ UxC/ utilities are anticipating.

In Game Theory parlance, this is emboldening the players (financial SPV's) to grab the initiative from utilities and scoop up as much mobile U as possible ahead of the "known" inevitable contract rounds required to secure uncommitted supply requirements for the next several years.

Cheers
John