Interview with Bruce Lane, Executive Director of GTI Energy Ltd.
Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/gti-energy-asxgtr-aiming-for-10mlb-uranium-mine-in-us-4798
Recording date: 24th January 2024
Uranium explorers with assets located in the United States stand poised to benefit enormously from the major supply-demand imbalances in the global uranium market. America’s nuclear electricity generators currently require 50 million pounds of uranium annually to fuel reactors, but over 85% of this supply is imported. With ambitions to triple nuclear capacity to 100 GWe while also facing limitations on supply from major producers like Canada, Australia and Kazakhstan, uranium mining within the US is returning in earnest.
Against this backdrop sits ASX listed GTI Energy, aggressively exploring and developing insitu recovery (ISR) uranium projects focused exclusively in Wyoming. Their properties in established mining districts benefit greatly from nearby technical and infrastructure validation from current ISR operations owned by Ur-Energy and Energy Fuels. GTI's Managing Director Bruce Lane explains this favorable position stating that “we’re dealing with the same sort of geology, same sort of thicknesses and depth...which will give us great confidence that the economics shouldn't be too crazy".
Their Lo Herma property contains an existing uranium resource with ample expansion potential, while the newly acquired Lance project also comes with historic resources that can likely be grown considerably. With the global uranium price having tripled in just the past two years on the back of intensifying supply shortages, Lane notes that the economics of historical Wyoming deposits prove viable again, explaining “we know with this uranium price that projects are economic...that's why they're switching them all back on”.
Unlike hard rock or open pit mines, the ISR mining method utilized by GTI requires very little surface infrastructure or ground excavation, using injection solutions sent down drill holes to dissolve underground uranium ores. This makes permitting and development easier and more cost effective. The company estimates that a 1 million pound per year operation would require only $30-40 million in capital using ISR techniques.
With uranium demand showing no signs of shrinking in America even before the more than 30 new reactors under construction come online, the window is open for GTI Energy to demonstrate sizeable low-cost uranium resources that can assist in reviving domestic nuclear fuel production. The proven ISR geology de-risks the path forward as an aggressive drilling campaign aims to expand resources rapidly amid an incredibly bullish environment for uranium prices into the foreseeable future. Nuclear utilities would welcome these future US-mined pounds to reduce import reliance and increase domestic energy security.
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View GTI Energy's company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/gti-energy
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