Mestena Uranium Auction to Guide Utility Purchases - By the end of March, Mestena is expected to offer another 100 thousand pounds U3O8 in a sealed-bid auction from the company’s ISR (in situ recovery) mining operations at Alta Mesa. “Bidding is expected to be aggressive,” wrote Nuclear Market Review editor Treva Klingbiel in the March 16th issue.

Uranium expected to pass $100 and possiblly $110 in the next two weeks

The TradeTech weekly spot uranium indicator remained unchanged for the week as no new transactions or demand was reported. Every Friday, after surveying fuel brokers and utilities for market activity, the consulting service posts changes in the weekly spot uranium price on its website at www.uranium.info.

“The market is already under upward price pressure due to thin supply,” said Klingbiel. The uncertainty of supply accompanying the recent flooding at ERA’s Ranger mining operations in Australia has not yet worked its way through the market. “Several parties are nearing completion of negotiations of deals,” Klingbiel wrote. With nine buyers hoping to obtain about four million pounds U3O8 equivalent, “more demand (is) on the horizon,” she added. Much of the current demand depends upon how soon ERA can bring Ranger’s operations back to the expected production level.

For now, it appears buyers show willingness to pay more to obtain a fixed price for their supply of uranium. How high will this ‘fixed price’ reach at the next uranium auction? One source told us the next uranium auction would yield triple digits. In an earlier phone conversation we had with Joe Card of American Fuel Resources LLC, he wasn’t as certain. “It will get there eventually,” Card told StockInterview.

Whether the new spot uranium price will reach $100, $110 or an even higher price, some two weeks hence, would mostly rely upon additional and disappointing remediation news from Cameco Corp about Cigar Lake or through an interim update from Energy Resources of Australia confirming an anticipated production loss from the Ranger operations at greater than two million pounds. Of course, either or both companies could surprise with encouraging news about their flooded uranium mines.

By Julie Ickes and James Finch, editors of StockInterview.com
http://www.stockinterview.com

COPYRIGHT © 2007 by StockInterview, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED James Finch contributes to StockInterview.com and other publications. His focus on the uranium mining and nuclear fuel sector resulted in the widely popular “Investing in the Great Uranium Bull Market,” which is now available on and on http://www.amazon.com The weekly spot uranium price is posted on the TradeTech website every weekend at http://www.uranium.info

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