Uranium Energy Corp CEO: U.S. needs to drill down on increasing uranium production

Uranium Energy Corp CEO: U.S. needs to drill down on increasing uranium production

uranium energy Corp up more than 4% since news of that Russian ban it’s a domestic uranium producer that shut down some of its Minds in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster but ueec plans to bring those back online this year and in 2025 to meet soaring demand for the mineral joining me now for an exclusive interview is CEO Amir adnani Amir thank you very much for being here this is such a multifaceted story because it’s not just about nuclear energy anymore it’s the crossroads of so many different current investing themes what is it about us uranium production that needs to change in order for us to be better positioned as a country three words Dom grow grow and grow that’s like drill drill drill right Dr Drill drill you got and the bottom line is we used to lead the world in uranium mining the US industry did uh before the collapse of the Soviet Union following the Soviet Union collapse we made room for them in the western markets and this is the reversal of that where we’re really seeing a repatriation of the nuclear fuel cycle that the $2.7 billion being provided in policy and the Russian uranium band should provide there’s absolutely I think every intention to see growth in front of us here for the domestic industry for all the reasons you mentioned oh so for the oil industry it’s about trying to find kind of proven reserves find out where the commodity actually lays underground does the US does domestic US Territory have the ability to support ramped up production how prevalent can we make the uranium business in the US 100% the world’s largest producer of uranium is a country of Kazakhstan after Kazakhstan the state of Wyoming for example has produced more uranium using the lowcost Institute recovery method than any other jurisdiction we have a over 40-year history of uranium mining in States like Wyoming and Texas and so the the knowhow is there the knowledge is there modern nature is there in terms of the mineral endowment it’s a lot like and gas in the sense that when we were importing over 50% of our requirements in early 2000s it didn’t seem feasible to think we can one day be exporting uh natural gas or oil and it’s the same thing with uranium I think the US has the right ingredients and the companies like ours who are leading the way towards restarting uranium and and look Dom right now we’re importing over 95% of our uranium requirements uranium is so critical to the intersection of all these themes that you talked about energy security National Security energy demand from data centers uh for AI generative AI so we have to address this issue headon and now what if we have Russian retaliation and we should talk about that I mean there’s the risk here of what people was talking about that if we get a retaliation from the Russians to Halt exports to the US sooner in reaction to the ban then we could see even uh further risk to uh higher uranium prices this is a capital expenditure story that’s not one or two or three years in the the making I mean to get these mines up running online productive could be a 3 5 10 15 20 year proposition to really get us the scale that we need is the industry is your company prepared to make that kind of commitment given the sentiment around nuclear power in this country let’s talk about commitment I started this company 19 years ago we’ve been committed for 19 years and since the downturn we had in uranium uranium was a hated sector for a long time my company has made close to a billion dollars of Acquisitions of uranium idled mines and projects when uranium prices were between 20 to $40 per pound today they’re over $90 per pound and so clearly the the commitment has been there from folks and companies uh like U that have demonstrated that we want to lead and Lead Ur us uranium production higher we are the fastest growing company but this is as you point out correctly a long dated industry these are long-term trends and Dom I think we’re going to have higher uranium prices for longer because even where the price is today at $92 we’re well short of the all-time high on an inflation adjusted basis which is closer to $200 per pound nuclear energy is the new renewable energy power source that we know so to speak uh versus some of the other Technologies out there but there’s been a an overwhelmingly negative sentiment around nuclear power among certain parts of this country do you think that that’s changed enough given the energy demands that we will see around Ai and data centers to to make people feel like we need to be more comfortable with nuclear power just this morning there were reports that data center developers in Northern Virginia are looking for the equivalence of several nuclear reactors power capacity to secure for these new data centers several nuclear reactors provide enough power for 3 million households approximately that’s the kind of scale and demand that we’re talking about in the sense that as we look for this green energy transition to be realized and as we look for economies to become more electrified and the themes around electrification become more important especially led by generative AI there’s no doubt that nuclear energy is the best option we have for large lowcost emission free Power and uranium is the highest form of energy density that we know of on the planet the uranium fuel really has a huge advantage that I think we’re starting to see that broad acceptance for and the bill that passed the Russian uranium band bill was 100% had bipartisan support unanimous support in in the Senate and the house and hopefully we’ll see President bid Biden sign this any day it’s a big Trend to watch for sure Amir adani thank you very much for joining us in the

Amir Adani, CEO of Uranium Energy Corp., joins CNBC’s ‘The Exchange’ to share how his company is reopening mines, outlooks on U.S. uranium production, and more.