Federal Register - August 2, 2021
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Source: Federal Register
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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 145 / Monday, August 2, 2021 / Notices
The low uranium spot price also contributes to utilization rates that are well below economically viable levels.
According to BIS survey data, front-end U.S. uranium producers indicated widely varying capacity utilization rates needed to remain profitable, with the lowest recorded at 25 percent, and the highest recorded at 100 percent. The
industry average capacity utilization rate U.S. uranium producers need to remain profitable is roughly 56 percent.
In the recent past, the utilization rate has been 3/10 of one percent 0.3
percent of licensed/operating capacity.
The industry cannot sustain at these unprofitable rates.
However, once market conditions improve, U.S. uranium producers can justify restarting operations and/or starting new operations. Most U.S.
uranium miners and millers are unable to produce at a viable level at the current low spot prices, but are ready to produce when economic conditions are more favorable see Figure 61.
Figure 61: Current State of the U.S. Uranium Miners
- Of the 14 mines "under development, 6 are "permitted to operate and 2 are ready to start operations.
- Of the 39 mines in nstandby/idle." 28 are "permitted to operate" and 4 are ready to start operations.
- Of the 5 mines "operating," one 1 is expected to enter "standby/idle" 2019--2023.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau ofl ndustry and Security, Front-End Survev, Tab 3a
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Of the uranium mining projects in idling/standby status, many indicated that it would take about one year to restart production, with a maximum time period estimated at four years and the minimum estimated at 30 days. The
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cost to fully restart production varied more widely with the maximum being $100 million, the minimum being $200
thousand, and the average being $12.8
million.
Furthermore, uranium deposits in the U.S. are vast approximately 1.2 billion
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pounds of U308 and can be extracted when the price reaches a level for production to be economically viable see Figures 62 and 63.
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