Date: Aug 6, 2018
Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU; TSX: EFR) (“Energy Fuels” or the “Company”), today reported its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2018. The Company’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), and may be viewed on the Electronic Document Gathering and Retrieval System (“EDGAR”) at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml, on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (“SEDAR”) at www.sedar.com, and on the Company’s website at www.energyfuels.com. Unless noted otherwise, all dollar amounts are in U.S. dollars.
Financial Highlights:
•At June 30, 2018, the Company had $55.25 million of working capital, including cash and cash equivalents of $43.2 million and approximately 225,000 pounds of uranium concentrate inventory.
•$26.9 million of total revenue was realized by the Company during the quarter, due primarily to the advancement of future deliveries under long-term contracts into the quarter.
•Primarily as a result of these high revenues, the Company reported net income of $7.1 million for the quarter.
•500,000 pounds of U3O8 deliveries were completed by the Company for the three months ended June 30, 2018 at an average realized price of $53.55 per pound. On April 1, 2018, the Company delivered 400,000 lbs. of U3O8 into long-term sales contracts at the price of $61.30 per pound, resulting in the receipt of over $24.5 million on May 1, 2018. In addition, on June 15, 2018 the Company delivered 100,000 lbs. of U3O8 into a spot contract at $22.57 per pound.
•Uranium production for our own account totaled 128,000 pounds of U3O8 during the quarter, plus another 91,000 pounds of U3O8 for the accounts of others.
•The Company began fulfilling toll processing alternate feed contracts which are expected to result in approximately $7.1 million of revenue for 2018, including $3.8 million of cash and $3.3 million of uranium for the Company’s account, of which $196,000 has been earned or recovered to date.
Mark S. Chalmers, Energy Fuels’ President and CEO stated:
“The past quarter was extremely productive for Energy Fuels. We completed a large quantity of uranium deliveries, and as a result we are reporting a profit for the quarter. And, due to a number of factors discussed below, we have significantly improved our working capital position to over $55 million.
“I am particularly excited about the progress of our Section 232 application and current vanadium opportunities. On July 18, 2018, the U.S. Department of Commerce (“DOC”) initiated its investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 in response to the Petition we and Ur-Energy filed in January 2018. The Petition seeks a remedy which would set a quota to limit imports of uranium into the U.S., effectively reserving 25% of the U.S. nuclear market for U.S. uranium production. The remedy, if granted, would be expected to bolster national defense, further global non-proliferation objectives, improve supply diversification for U.S. utilities and their customers, and strengthen the U.S. uranium mining industry.
“As the only company currently capable of producing vanadium in North America, we are also very excited about our current vanadium opportunities. As previously reported, with spot prices nearing $20 per pound of V2O5, we have decided to resume vanadium production in 2018 by recovering solubilized vanadium from the White Mesa Mill’s tailings and evaporation ponds. We expect to initially recover approximately 500,000 lbs. of V2O5 in late-2018 or early-2019, and given favorable costs, recoveries, and then-prevailing market conditions, we expect to continue vanadium recovery in 2019, recovering up to approximately 4 million lbs. of V2O5 over the life of the project. For longer term alternatives, we are evaluating other vanadium production opportunities, including the processing of previously mined uranium/vanadium stockpiles in the vicinity of the Mill, processing other vanadium-bearing streams, and, with improved uranium prices, the re-initiation of conventional uranium/vanadium mine production from certain of our mines that contain large, high-grade vanadium resources.
“These opportunities are exciting because they provide us with unsurpassed optionality to increase uranium production as prices rise, as well as allow us to take advantage of the recent significant increases in vanadium prices.
“Finally, we were able to significantly strengthen our balance sheet by joining the broad-market Russell 3000 Index® during the Quarter. During the Russell rebalance period, we were able to raise significant cash, while our stock outperformed our peers. Inclusion in the Russell is expected to increase the Company’s liquidity, visibility and exposure to key institutional investors. In addition, Energy Fuels has been able to maintain a very strong working capital position, and we intend to use some of these proceeds to repay all of our existing long-term Wyoming debt the third quarter of this year.”
Key Developments:
On May 8, 2018, the Company announced that it intends to resume vanadium recovery operations at the Company’s White Mesa Mill in 2018. The Company expects to recover significant quantities of currently dissolved vanadium from the tailings and evaporation ponds at the White Mesa Mill.
On June 25, 2018, the Company announced that it had been added as a member of the broad-market Russell 3000® Index, as part of the 2018 Russell indexes reconstitution. Annual reconstitution of the Russell indexes captures the 3,000 largest U.S. stocks as of May 11, ranking them by total market capitalization. Membership in the Russell 3000® Index, which remains in place for one year, means automatic inclusion in the large-cap Russell 1000® Index or small-cap Russell 2000® Index, as well as the appropriate growth and value style indexes.
On July 18, 2018, the Company announced that the Department of Commerce (“DOC”) initiated an investigation into the effects of uranium imports on U.S. national security. The Company and Ur-Energy requested the investigation in their Petition for Relief under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The Company and Ur-Energy have proposed remedies that would reserve 25% of the U.S. nuclear market for U.S. uranium producers.
Operations and Sales Outlook:
The Company plans to extract and/or recover uranium from the following sources in 2018 (each of which is more fully described below):
•Nichols Ranch Project;
•Alternate Feed Materials (uranium-bearing materials other than conventional ores); and
•The recovery of dissolved uranium from the Mill’s tailings management system that was not fully recovered during the Mill’s prior thirty-plus years of operations (“Pond Return”).
Our planned operations are expected to produce finished uranium in excess of our existing requirements under our final remaining sales contract.
In addition, the Company has a long history of conventional vanadium recovery at the Mill when vanadium prices support those activities. The Company is currently expecting to resume vanadium recovery from pond solutions at the Mill later in 2018. The Company is also evaluating opportunities for copper recovery from our Canyon Project.
Extraction and Recovery Activities – Overview
The Company expects to produce a total of 460,000 to 520,000 pounds of U3O8 in the year ending December 31, 2018, of which 171,000 pounds of U3O8 were produced in the first six months of 2018.
Extraction and Recovery – ISR Uranium Segment
We expect production at Nichols Ranch to total 140,000 to 160,000 pounds in the year ending December 31, 2018, of which we recovered 82,000 pounds during the first six months of 2018.
At June 30, 2018, the Nichols Ranch wellfields had nine header houses extracting uranium. Until such time as improvement in uranium market conditions is observed or suitable sales contracts can be entered into, the Company intends to defer further development of wellfields at its Nichols Ranch Project and to keep Alta Mesa on standby.
Extraction and Recovery – Milling Operations
We expect to recover 320,000 to 360,000 pounds of uranium at the Mill during the year ending December 31, 2018 for our own account, of which we have recovered 89,000 lbs. to date in 2018. Of this material, approximately 145,000 pounds are expected to be from alternate feed materials and the remainder from Pond Return. In addition to the 145,000 pounds expected to be recovered from alternate feed materials, valued at $3.3 million, the Company expects to receive an additional $3.8 million in cash from processing fees, for a total expected value from alternate feed materials of $7.1 million during 2018, of which $196,000 has been earned or recovered to date in 2018. The Company is continuing to pursue other alternate feed material opportunities, some of which may result in additional value to the Company in 2018.
The Company currently expects that planned processing activities will keep the Mill in operation through the end of 2018, and will generate positive cash flow as a result. The Company is also actively pursuing opportunities to process new and additional alternate feed sources, low-grade ore from third parties in connection with various uranium clean-up requirements, and further recovery of uranium from Pond Return. The Company also plans to recover vanadium from existing pond solutions in a manner similar to the way the Company has recovered uranium from those same solutions, and perhaps recover vanadium from other sources.
Vanadium Recovery
Vanadium is a metallic element that is used primarily as an additive to strengthen and harden steel and other high-strength alloys. In addition, the commercialization of grid energy storage systems, including vanadium redox flow batteries, is catalyzing growth in vanadium markets.
In addition to its planned vanadium recovery from pond solutions at the Mill later in 2018 and in 2019, the Company is also reviewing the economics of processing certain previously mined uranium/vanadium ore stockpiles in the vicinity of the Mill and re-initiation of conventional mining at certain of its uranium/vanadium mines, as well as the recovery of vanadium alone, or in combination with uranium, from other potential vanadium-bearing streams, as market conditions may warrant.
The goal of the Company’s vanadium review is to better quantify near- and mid-term vanadium revenue streams, in light of recent increases in vanadium prices, while minimizing the risks of market fluctuations.
