Industry Expert Expects Junior Uranium Stocks Washout

By: James_Finch

Yellowcake Mining director Dr. Robert Rich speaks out on NYMEX uranium futures, the upcoming uranium price adjustment, junior uranium companies washing out, and why he believes his company will survive in the years ahead. A long time nuclear energy veteran with a PhD in economic geology from Harvard University, Dr. Rich has been affiliated with BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP), the Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo and Yankee Atomic. He presently resides in Massachusetts.

StockInterview: What are your thoughts on the impact of the recent NYMEX uranium futures on the uranium mining stocks, and will this help bring uranium mining stocks onto Wall Street's radar?

Dr. Robert Rich: I believe the impact of the new NYMEX futures market will have a positive impact on many juniors, but I think it will specifically help those who really are in the business to become producers. I think it will provide options which haven't existed in the past to raise money in a different manner. One should be able to pre-sell output and raise money that way. So, I think it will help the overall uranium production sector.

StockInterview: You serve on the board of directors for Yellowcake Mining. What made you decide to lend your highly regarded name to a small uranium company?

Dr. Robert Rich: I believe in what Yellowcake is trying to accomplish. They have a mid-term goal of becoming a producer and not just someone who explores or spins off property —that sort of thing. I think that their properties are good. Juniper Ridge certainly provides long-term prospects for significant uranium production. There are two smaller properties that we recently acquired rights to also, in Wyoming, that could be near-term producers. We could get them online in 3 or 4 years. Lastly, we are in the process of acquiring properties in Texas that are adjacent to existing operating and highly profitable properties. We think that we will end up, one day, becoming a producer in Texas as well as Wyoming. In addition to offering near-term rewards for shareholders, I think Yellowcake offers a very real prospect of long-term growth.

StockInterview: What do you believe are realistic prospects for Yellowcake Mining?

Dr. Robert Rich: Realistic prospects are to produce at the Sky and Jeep properties in the Gas Hills within 3 or 4 years. There is a total of at least a million and a half pounds at those two ISR deposits. Those are well along in permitting. It's just a matter of doing the work and completing the permitting so we can start ISR recovery there. In the longer run, you'll see output coming from both Juniper Ridge and our Texas properties, which are in process at the moment. I think you could easily see somewhere between one and two million pounds per year being produced in the United States by Yellowcake during the next 5-7 years.

StockInterview: Which one of the company's projects are likely to emerge as the flagship project for Yellowcake?

Dr. Robert Rich: I would have to say Juniper Ridge. Juniper Ridge has a significant resource base already. Based on drilling that was done in the past, we have an aggressive program to do confirmation drilling and also hydrologic test drilling, both for environmental and possible ISR mining information. That property has a lot of room to expand in terms of the amount of resources we expect to have there. We've been adding to our property at Juniper Ridge. Just recently, we've been adding to the claims there because we don't know really where the trends that we know exist within our present property - where they are going. So we are trying to accumulate some margin for error.

StockInterview: So there may be a lot more uranium there?

Dr. Robert Rich: Yes, I think Juniper Ridge has the potential to probably double in resources from what we currently know.

StockInterview: Why should investors consider Yellowcake Mining out of the 500 plus other uranium contenders? What makes Yellowcake different?

Dr. Robert Rich: What makes us different is we have a plan to be one of the survivors after the market adjusts at some point in the future. I think there's going to be a huge wave of consolidation that rolls through the juniors. You are going to see some companies go out of business and others merge or be acquired. You are going to see a resulting big reshuffling of properties. I think because of the quality of the properties we have, and the fact that we'll be a revenue generating company through uranium production and sales, we expect to be there in the future. We expect to be able to pick up the stuff that other people can no longer manage.

By James Finch
http://www.stockinterview.com

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James Finch contributes to StockInterview.com and other publications. His recent work, “Investing in China's Energy Crisis,” is now available at http://bookstore.stockinterview.com/CBM-ebook.html

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