“We’re in project Manhattan 2.0”, uranium CEO says

This week, when US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the US should look to boost its strategic uranium reserve to buffer against Russian supplies and increase confidence in the long-term prospects of nuclear power generation, it shone a spotlight on the impending uranium supply deficit. Uranium is a crucial source of reliable baseload power as nuclear energy, and the US requires an estimated 32 million pounds of uranium annually for its current nuclear reactors. Energy Fuels’ White Mesa Mill in Utah is the only producing mill in the US. Russia supplies about a quarter of the enriched uranium needed by America’s fleet of 94 nuclear reactors, which generate about a fifth of US electricity.In 2024, the United States consumed 50 million pounds of uranium, but only produced 677,000 pounds, according to the Energy Information Administration.  That is just over 1% of their needs, and sums up the current  geopolitics around US uranium supply.Infographic: Who controls uranium?The rush to ensure domestic US uranium supply hearkens back to the 1940s era Manhattan Project, a secret US-led World War II program to develop nuclear energy capabilities before foreign adversaries could. Largest mineable uranium deposit in the USUS uranium miner and nuclear reactor technology developer Eagle Energy Metals this summer struck a deal to go public through a merger with blank-check company Spring Valley Acquisition Corp., capitalizing on growing energy demand amid the AI boom.The deal gives the combined company a pro-forma equity value of $312 million.  The company was founded in late 2023 around the American Energy Independence National Security Narrative, Eagle Energy Metals CEO Mark Mukhija told MINING.com in an interview. The company acquired the Aurora uranium project in 2024, which it says is the largest mineable uranium deposit in the US. The company’s land package spans the Oregon-Nevada border, with the mine on the Oregon side and the plant on the Nevada side. The Aurora deposit has a near-surface resource of over 50 million pounds of uranium, generated from more than 500 holes drilled to date. Adjacent to Aurora is the Cordex deposit, which has had over 100 holes drilled into it and offers significant upside of additional uranium resources, Mukhija said. Rising demand “We saw what was happening with power demand when it comes to AI and cryptocurrencies and quantum computing and not even mentioning the humanoid robot wave that’s probably going to come as well,” Mukhija said. “So after two decades of relatively flat power demand, we’re at this inflection point where, you know, energy usage could triple by 2050. So we always wanted to be a part of that and addressing that big problem that’s coming.”“And nuclear, I believe, is the only way to do that, compared to intermittent power sources like wind and solar, which are great, but they don’t provide that baseload power level at the capacity factor that nuclear does.” Small modular reactor technologyAlongside its Aurora asset, the company is also bringing to market its small modular reactor technology, which was developed at the University of New Mexico. Mukhija said Eagle Energy Metals will be the first domestic uranium resource exploration firm with SMR technology.SMR is an advanced nuclear reactor design that is significantly smaller and more flexible than traditional large reactors. “It’s a fully portable, walkaway safe, liquid-cooled metal fast reactor. And these are built completely at a factory, sealed, and then they’re delivered to site. Our micro modular reactor can deliver up to 3.3 megawatts of power,” Mukhija said, adding that the SMRs can be deployed at disaster relief areas, military outposts, and mine sites. Mukhija said the executive orders to expand critical minerals production in the US aim to quadruple nuclear energy capacity in the United States by 2050. “You’re going to go from 50 million pounds to 200 million pounds of uranium that’s needed. And that’s not even taking into consideration the build-out that China is going to be doing.”“AI cannot be decoupled from national defense – power is the bottleneck. We’re in project Manhattan 2.0.  We need to get as much power generation as possible.”“And we’re excited to be a part of the Western response to all of that because we need to make sure that the United States has uranium and fuel for their reactors. This project meets national policy initiatives of a resource that the country needs.”The company is focused on baseline environmental and cultural studies, and plans to start a prefeasibility study in H2 2026. This year, it completed a SK1300 technical report summary on the Aurora asset.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com