Canada aims to become world's biggest uranium producer as demand soars
Canada is racing to become the world’s biggest uranium producer as prices for the radioactive metal surge in response to soaring demand for emissions-free nuclear power and geopolitical tensions threaten supplies.
Cameco Corp., the country’s largest producer, said that production of uranium would jump by almost a third in 2024 to 37 million pounds at its two mines in the heartland of the country’s uranium industry in northern Saskatchewan.
New mines and expansions planned by the company, as well as by Denison Mines Corp., Orano Canada Inc., Paladin Energy Ltd. and NexGen Energy Ltd., in the same region could double domestic production by 2035, according to investment bank RBC Capital Markets.
Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s Energy and natural resources minister, said investment in the country’s uranium market was at a 20-year high, with spending on exploration and deposit appraisal “surging by 90 per cent to $232 million in 2022, and an additional 26 per cent in 2023 to $300 million.”
“Not only does Canada mine enough uranium to fuel our domestic reactors, but we are also the only country in the G7 that can supply uranium to fuel our allies’ reactors. Each year, Canada exports over 80 per cent of our uranium production, making us a world leader in this market,” he said in a statement to the FT.
The industry is racing to cash in on a surge in uranium prices, which spiked above US$100 a pound in January last year — a level not seen since 2008. While they have since dropped to US$73 a pound, this is still far above the average of below US$50 recorded annually over the past decade.
The expansion marks a turnaround for Canada’s uranium industry, which was the world’s top producer of the metal — the main component of nuclear fuel
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