US utilities step-up hunt for more uranium supplies, Boss chief tells world nuclear conference

Utilities have largely been sitting on the sidelines this year, waiting for the dust to settle after recent market and geopolitical turmoil, which saw the price drop to US$63.50 per pound.

During a webinar last week, Boss Energy managing director Duncan Craib said there was a revival of interest underway.

The three-day World Nuclear Fuel Market conference wrapped up in Sydney on Wednesday, the first time in 51 years the conference has been held in Australia.

Today, Boss will host 30 nuclear fuel buyers on site at the Honeymoon mine in South Australia.

“Such is the interest in Australian production, given its geopolitical stability and we’re known as a good trading partner,” Craib said.

The visit comes after more positive news for the global nuclear sector.

Two weeks ago, US president Donald Trump signed four executive orders which aim to re-establish the US as a global leader in nuclear energy.

“Now that these executive orders have come through, and the expansion in the US that’s going to take place, and is taking place, US utilities are now coming out to procure more materials,” Craib said.

“Certainly, we’re getting inbound interest as well from Europe, from China, South Korea and Japan.”

Earlier this week, Facebook owner Meta announced it had signed a 20-year agreement to buy nuclear power from US-based Constellation Energy.

Price rise inevitable

The uranium spot price is currently sitting at US$72/lb.

“If you look at that as an incentive price, it’s simply not high enough to encourage new buildouts,” Craib said.

Craib pointed to ASX-listed developers, including Deep Yellow, Bannerman Energy and Aura Energy, which were “waiting in the wings” for the price to rise with shovel-ready projects.

He also noted that at US$80/lb, the term price was the highest it had ever been at the start of a new contracting cycle, while in Australian dollar terms, the uranium price was at a record high.

“It’s really exciting, but still, it’s not high enough to incentivise that new production,” he said.

“We feel that a price rise is inevitable. A spike will happen because of the shortfall in supply.”

Honeymoon humming

The Honeymoon restart project achieved first production in April last year, with commercial production achieved as of January 1.

The March quarter represented the first quarter of free cashflow.

Honeymoon remains on track to achieve its 2025 financial year guidance of 850,000 pounds.

“It’s quite remarkable, really, for any mining operation to achieve its targets within the first year,” Craib said.

Honeymoon will ramp up to 1.6 million pounds per annum in FY26 and eventually to the full run-rate of 2.4Mlbpa.

“With our high-quality register and spot prices rising, we feel our strategy to be ready at the start of a fuel cycle, we timed it just right,” Craib said.

“And we’re very fortunate in that we took the leap of faith when the uranium price was hovering around US$40-45 per pound, believing it would go up, and fortuitously, it actually has.

“When you look at our shareholder returns over that journey, since we acquired the project in December 2015, we’ve basically delivered an annualised return of 38.5% each year for the past eight years, so it’s been a terrific outcome, and it’s really aligned with the actual commodity price itself and the market demand.”

Boss shares are up by more than 60% since the start of the year and on Wednesday, Bell Potter Securities reiterated the company as its top pick with a buy rating and A$4.85 price target.

Growth

Boss is debt-free and had A$229 million in cash and liquid assets as of March 31.

The company holds a 30% stake in enCore Energy Corp’s Alta Mesa uranium project in Texas, which is ramping up to 1.5Mlbpa.

As well as Boss’ own exploration efforts around Honeymoon, which is aimed at growing production and extending the mine life, it also recently signed an option and earn-in agreement with Eclipse Metals over the Liverpool uranium project in the Northern Territory.

Liverpool is an early stage project in the Alligator Rivers Uranium Field and shares geological similarities to the Jabiluka deposit.

Boss also holds 19.7% of Laramide Resources, which holds advanced uranium projects in the NT, Queensland, the US and Kazakhstan, acquired through on-market trades for A$38 million.

“We’re also looking at expansion, whether that’s organic, through our own exploration, or inorganic, through mergers and acquisitions,” Craib said.

“But we’re being very disciplined with that capital allocation, really looking for value-accretive type acquisitions.”