(Kitco News) - Uranium producer Energy Fuels (NYSE: UUUU) (TSX: EFR) today announced that it has been awarded a contract to sell $18.5 million of natural uranium concentrates ("U3O8") to the U.S. government for the establishment of a strategic uranium reserve.
The company said that the U.S. uranium reserve is intended to be a backup source of supply for domestic nuclear power plants in the event of a significant market disruption.
The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration ("NNSA"), an office within the U.S. Department of Energy ("DOE"), is the agency tasked with purchasing domestic U3O8 and conversion services for the uranium reserve.
Energy Fuels expects to complete the sale of uranium for the U.S. uranium reserve to NNSA during Q1 2023 and realize total gross proceeds of $18.5 million.
Additionally, the company announced its application for membership in the DOE's newly created HALEU Consortium.
The HALEU Consortium is a program managed by the DOE's office of Nuclear Energy intended to help create a secure domestic supply of high-assay, low-enriched uranium ("HALEU") used by many of the next generation of advanced nuclear reactor technologies.
According to a company press release, HALEU enables many advanced reactor designs to be smaller and more efficient than traditional reactors.
President and CEO Mark S. Chalmers commented, "Energy Fuels is pleased to contribute to U.S. energy security by supplying U.S.-origin uranium to the U.S. uranium reserve. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has highlighted America's troubling dependence on Russia and its allies for our nuclear fuel and uranium supply, and the need for the U.S. to rebuild its uranium and nuclear fuel capabilities."
Energy Fuels is a leading U.S.-based uranium mining company, supplying U3O8 to major nuclear utilities. The company also produces vanadium from certain of its projects, as market conditions warrant, mixed rare earth element carbonate from uranium-bearing monazite ores and is ramping up to full commercial-scale production of separated rare earth oxides.
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