URA provides comprehensive exposure to the niche uranium industry, with its portfolio of 48 stocks spanning miners, refiners, and manufacturers of equipment for both uranium companies and nuclear-facility firms. This operational flexibility, alongside strong financials, are huge competitive advantages to have, especially at a time when the uranium industry is at an inflection point. Uranium prices hit nine-year highs in the month of September as the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust Fund aggressively mopped up uranium from the spot market. CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.
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You should keep on top of market news to monitor the price of uranium and react appropriately to news events that may have an impact on your open positions. With a live account, you will have access to our news and analysis section, which is updated by our expert market analysts on a daily basis, as well as exclusive fundamental Morningstar reports and our Reuters news feed. It is even possible to set trading alerts for this type cryptocurrency wallet guide of news via desktop, mobile or tablet device. Unfortunately, uranium also has a dark side, as the 2011 earthquake-tsunami-Fukushima reactor meltdown trio illustrated.
Melissa Pistilli has been reporting on the markets and educating investors since 2006. She has covered a wide variety of industries in the investment space including mining, cannabis, tech and pharmaceuticals. She helps to educate investors about opportunities in a variety of growth markets. Melissa holds a bachelor’s degree in English education as well as a master’s degree in the what is cryptojacking teaching of writing, both from Humboldt State University, California. The price of uranium broke through the US$100 level in late January 2024 to reach a 16-year high of US$106 per pound U3O8.
- Uranium investors can also look into slightly more unusual investment options.
- Unfortunately, uranium also has a dark side, as the 2011 earthquake-tsunami-Fukushima reactor meltdown trio illustrated.
- Those assets have soared in recent years, mind you – URA claimed just over $100 million in AUM during the COVID lows before gobbling up assets in more recent years.
- In 2011, Japan’s Fukushima power plant was hit by a severe earthquake and tsunami in the region, causing the most severe nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster.
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Aside from uranium exposure and liquidity, you’ll enjoy extra benefits like automatic diversity. Plus, some funds offer exposure to nuclear or clean energy what happened to bitcoin at large, potentially cushioning volatile uranium prices. The uranium market has faced difficulties since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, when tsunamis brought on by a massive earthquake crashed into and damaged several Japanese nuclear reactors. In the years since, fears over the radioactive risks posed by nuclear reactors, paired with excess supply, have weighed on prices.
Founded in 2018, Yellow Cake provides investment exposure to the uranium spot price through its physical holdings of uranium and uranium-related commercial activities. The Sprott Uranium Miners ETF includes both uranium producers and explorers for broader exposure. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.83 percent and a yearly return of 50.34 percent. A closer look at the ETF’s meager 28 holdings, however, shows that NLR isn’t quite a pure-play on uranium as you might expect – or at least, not how you’d expect. That is, a little more than 40% of the fund is invested in plain ol’ utility stocks – companies such as Constellation Energy (CEG), Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG) and PG&E (PCG).
But when they do happen, they can be catastrophic – and lead to substantial policy changes. In a May 2024 interview with INN, Ben Finegold shared his thoughts on uranium’s market dynamics, which he remains very bullish on. Well, assuming it does get the approvals it needs, building its SMRs will solve some of the biggest problems facing large-scale nuclear adoption.
VanEck Vectors Uranium + Nuclear Energy ETF (ARCA:NLR)
This mine produced 6% of total global supply in 2019 with estimates of 347,000 tonnes of contained uranium oxide. It is interesting to note that, while Australia is the third-largest producer of uranium, and it also has the largest amount of uranium resources in the world, nuclear power is banned in the country. This may be due to the concerns surrounding the potential risks that nuclear stations and power plants present to the environment and the health of Australian citizens, which was triggered by the 2011 Fukushima disaster. The price of uranium is likely to be influenced heavily by trends in nuclear power usage for electricity generation. The World Nuclear Association projects a 30% increase in electricity generation from nuclear power by 2030 and a 35% increase by 2035. There’s also the Uranium Royalty Corporation, which makes physical uranium purchases and invests in uranium-based companies in exchange for royalties.
It appears that uranium stocks are on the rise since countries around the world have begun investing more money and resources into uranium mining. Prominent companies such as Cameco, NexGen Energy and Yellow Cake have seen strong gains between 2020 and 2021. Energy Resources is an Australian mining company and a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, which owns roughly 70% of the company. It is one of the largest uranium producers in the world and owns part of the Ranger Mine along with its parent company. Although mining stopped in 2012, it is still producing material from stockpiled uranium ore, and the Ranger Mine produced 3.8m of uranium throughout 2019. ERA sells its product to electric utility companies across Asia, North America and Europe.