More Sulphuric Delays For Kazatomprom
Uranium higher for longer as Kazatomprom will have issues raising production
Uranium Meme
Climate: The Movie (The Cold Truth)
Video Description:
The film explores the nature of the consensus behind climate change. It describes the origins of the climate funding bandwagon, and the rise of the trillion-dollar climate industry. It describes the hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on the climate crisis. It explains the enormous pressure on scientists and others not to question the climate alarm: the withdrawal of funds, rejection by science journals, social ostracism.
It is always about power and money, always. Ask the question, Qui Bono (who benefits).
GMO Updated Seven-Year Forward Return Forecasts
Emerging Markets are still looking good on a forward basis. However, US large and small-cap forward returns are negative due to historical overvaluation.
The Opportunity In Gold Stocks Visualized
This is from the Incrementum’s Preview Chart Book for its annual “In Gold We Trust.” If inclined, follow the link to check out the chart book. They do tremendous work, in my view.
American Society Of Civil Engineers Infrastructure Report Card
I mentioned this in this week’s AIA Weekly Video. The society publishes an infrastructure report card on the US as a whole and also individual states. The current US report is D+.
You can check out the website at this link.
Here is a snippet of the energy infrastructure report.
Much of the U.S. energy system predates the turn of the 21st century. Most electric transmission and distribution lines were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s with a 50-year life expectancy, and the more than 640,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in the lower 48 states’ power grids are at full capacity. Energy infrastructure is undergoing increased investment to ensure long-term capacity and sustainability; in 2015, 40% of additional power generation came from natural gas and renewable systems. Without greater attention to aging equipment, capacity bottlenecks, and increased demand, as well as increasing storm and climate impacts, Americans will likely experience longer and more frequent power interruptions.
This deficiency will have to be dealt with at some point. This will require trillions in new investment. This has enormous investment implications, especially as it applies to commodities and resources.
Kazatomprom sulphuric acid issues to stretch out until 2027
If you are an investor in uranium stocks, you are likely aware of the problems Kaztomprom, the state-owned uranium miner in Kazakhstan, has on hiking uranium production. The company's management has attributed much of the problem to the lack of sulphuric acid needed in its ISR mining methods.
Here is a link to an article in Kazakhstan discussing the issue. It is in Russian, but I translated it using Google Translate.
The construction of a sulfuric acid plant in the Turkestan region with a capacity of 800 thousand tons for the growing mining needs of Kazatomprom’s uranium enterprises may drag on until 2027, although its launch was previously planned in 2026. This became known during a conference call between the management of the national company and investors and analysts on the operating and financial results of last year, reports inbusiness.kz .
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The requirement of Kazatomprom's uranium enterprises for sulfuric acid, which is used as a chemical reagent in underground borehole leaching, is approximately 1.7 million tons per year to maintain the current production level of 21-22 thousand tons. The annual production of sulfuric acid plants associated with the uranium national company reached approximately 680 thousand tons, the rest of the demand was met by Kazzinc and Kazakhmys, as well as with the help of Russian imports. By the way, during the conference call it became known that importing sulfuric acid from China is impossible due to restrictions.
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In the meantime, the lack of sulfuric acid in Kazakhstan does not allow reaching the previously announced level of uranium production in the country of 25 thousand tons for 2024; this year the production volume is expected to be 21-22.5 thousand tons, almost the same as last year - 21.1 thousand tons.
TL;DR
Kazatomprom will likely have issues increasing uranium production for longer than many thought. This is bullish uranium prices and for those companies that can increase production to capture the higher price.
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John Polomny
Why did you choose GMO data to look at the forward returns? I question how accurate these things are, like trying to predict the market