Uranium Energy Corp., the company many consider to be in the best position to become the country’s next major producer of uranium, says that it is well on its way toward initial uranium production as early as November. The company has already finished the first phase of wellfield development at the Palangana ISR uranium project in South Texas, and has completed 40 injection and production wells. These wells are to be brought on-stream in three phases, as part of the buildup to initial sustainable levels of production. Construction of Palangana’s ion-exchange satellite facility is also well underway.

One of the several strengths of UEC is their experience with ISR (in situ recovery), an efficient and environmentally sound technology for mining uranium. With this technology, uranium is leached from the in-place ore through an array of regularly spaced wells and is then recovered from the leach solution at a surface plant.

Another key strength of the company is the fact that it already has its own uranium processing plant, the fully licensed and permitted Hobson processing facility in South Texas, central to all of UEC’s projects in the area. Earlier the company indicated a goal of reaching an output rate of close to 3 million pounds annually by 2015.

Long term, the company is looking at a number of other sites throughout the mountain states, and is using one of the biggest databases of historic uranium exploration and production to identify sites with the greatest potential.

Given the complete turnaround in the uranium market over the last several years, due to the increasing pressures to move away from fossil fuels, along with the significant uranium deposits in the U.S., it’s astounding that more than 95% of the uranium used in the U.S. still comes from outside the country. This presents a major opportunity for UEC, which is so far along the development path compared to other companies.

For more information, see the company website at www.UraniumEnergy.com.

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