Amir Adnani
Analyst · Goldman Sachs
Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. A presentation accompanying today's call is available on our website. Some of the commentary today will include forward-looking statements, and I would encourage everyone to review the cautionary language on Slide 2 of the presentation. With that, let's begin with highlights from the quarter. This quarter reflected continued execution of our long-term strategy, building America's first and only vertically integrated uranium fuel supply chain from mining through refining and conversion. What differentiates UEC is the scale of our asset base. We control the largest uranium resource base in the United States, which provides the foundation for decades of staged production growth as nuclear energy expands and supply chains increasingly shift back towards domestic fuel security. This is in strategic alignment with the strengthening U.S. policy support and anticipated structural supply deficit. During the quarter, we also demonstrated the advantage of our unhedged marketing strategy, we sold 200,000 pounds of U3O8 and $101 per pound approximately 25% above the quarterly average price of about $80 per pound. Our strategy has been consistent, maintain a strong balance sheet, hold physical uranium inventory and sell opportunistically when pricing supports value creation for shareholders. Those sales further strengthened our financial position. We ended the quarter with $818 million in liquidity and no debt, maintaining one of the strongest balance sheets in the uranium sector. At the same time, we continued advancing the broader strategy that underpins UEC's long-term growth, expanding beyond mining into refining and conversion to help address both a critical and structural gap in the U.S. nuclear fuel cycle. With the increasing focus on energy and national security, we believe UEC is strategically aligned with where both the market and policymakers are heading. In summary, the quarter reinforced three themes that continue to define UEC: Scale, financial strength, and strategic positioning within the U.S. nuclear fuel supply chain. With that overview, let's turn to operational highlights. In the second quarter, our focus was on delivering significant construction milestones in Wyoming and Texas. We are thrilled with the completion of construction at Burke Hollow, which is now the newest ISR uranium mine in the United States. This project has been more than a decade in development since its discovery in 2012. And I want to recognize the outstanding work of our technical and operations team in bringing it to the stage. With that, expanded production infrastructure required for higher output is now in place across our Burke Hollow and Christensen Ranch ISR projects ready for operations, pending final regulatory approvals. During fiscal Q2, the UEC produced 45,743 pounds of U308 driven by only two active header houses at Christensen Ranch at a total cost per pound of $44.14 and a cash cost per pound of $39.66. Since the restart of operations at Christensen Ranch, accumulated production has now reached 244,321 pounds at a total cost per pound of $37.28 and a cash cost per count of $30.50 and demonstrating the efficiency of our ISR operating platform. At Christensen Ranch, four new header houses were completed and three additional header houses are currently under construction, expanding wellfield capacity and supporting future ISR production growth once regulatory approvals are received. At the Irigaray central processing plant refurbishment of the Christensen Ranch was completed allowing the sort of 24/7 operations and fully optimizing the facility for increased processing throughput. At Ludeman, delineating continued at the first planned wellfield, while engineering progressed for the satellite ion exchange plant. Taken together, Christensen Ranch, Irigaray and Ludeman represent the next stage of near-term production across our Powder River Basin platform. As the uranium sector accelerates, we are also seeing something that has not occurred in the United States for more than 15 years, a broad restart of domestic uranium development activity that renewed activity is positive for the industry, but it also means regulators are processing significantly higher levels of permitting activity than they have in many years. resulting in some regulatory backlog across the sector. We are working constructively with regulators and industry peers through a coordinated working group aimed at supporting efficient and responsible approvals. These are normal growing pains when an industry transitions from dormancy back into expansion. And we believe the collaboration underway will help ensure that process continues to move forward effectively. Beyond our current production hubs, we also continued advancing our significant development assets. At Sweetwater, development activities accelerated with the completion of 23 case monitor wells and the coring program for advanced metallurgical testing. Along with the commencement of the 200 whole delineation drilling program on March 2, 2026. And in Saskatchewan, we continued to achieve notable progress with the Roughrider project, completing more than 30% of the core drilling programs supporting the upcoming prefeasibility study. In parallel, our Canadian team is also working with SaskPower toward a definition phase agreement for a high-voltage power connection to the project. Turning to the financial results. We finished the quarter with $818 million in liquid assets, including $486 million in cash, along with accounts receivable, Uranium inventory and marketable equities and importantly, no debt. This financial strength provides the flexibility to advance production growth while maintaining a disciplined and opportunistic approach to uranium marketing. As mentioned earlier, during the quarter, we sold 200,000 pounds of U308 and $101 per pound, well above the average quarterly uranium price of approximately $80. These sales generated over $20 million in revenue and $10 million in gross profit. As of January 31, 2026, the company held $1,456,000 U308 valued at approximately $144 million of market prices. Excluding an additional 244,321 pounds of precipitated uranium and dried and drone U308 at the Irigaray gare processing plant. Maintaining strong liquidity, including physical uranium inventory remains an integral part of our strategy as we position the company ahead of evolving policy developments and tightening uranium supply fundamentals. A key component of our long-term strategy is United States uranium Refining & Conversion Corp., or URNC. Uranium conversion remains an acute bottleneck in the Western nuclear fuel cycle with insufficient commercial UF6 capacity outside Russia and China. At the same time, a critical gap in the U.S. nuclear fuel cycle is the lack of an integrated domestic supplier, spanning mining, processing, refining and conversion. That gap underscores the importance of UEC's initiative with URNC. During the quarter, URC continued high-level engagement with government officials and further advance the feasibility spend at the floor while also expanding both the technical and licensing team supporting the project. We also initiated a detailed siting study, evaluating potential locations across the United States based on permitting considerations, infrastructure, logistics and workforce availability. The objective is straightforward build America's first and only company capable of anchoring the nuclear fuel supply chain required to support enrichment and the expansion of the U.S. nuclear industrial base aligned with current U.S. policy initiatives to grow nuclear power. Our operational platform is built around scalable hub-and-spoke ISR operations in Wyoming and South Texas. Supporting by longer-term development projects at Sweetwater and Roughrider. Starting in Wyoming, Christensen Ranch continues to operate as the first spoke to the Irigaray central processing plant, and we increased our work progress at the Ludeman project that will serve as the second spoke. During the quarter, we continued advancing new production areas at Christensen Ranch and Ludeman through delineation drilling header houses and additional wellfield development. Turning to South Texas and a major accomplishment, we have completed the construction of our Burke Hollow mine. The operations team is currently preparing for start-up while awaiting the state regulator's final approval of the drilling and completion report for the waste disposal one, which is a standard protocol before commencing ISR operations. The first production area at Burke Hollow includes 129 injection and recovery wells, all of which have been tested for mechanical integrity and should provide feed to the IX plant once operations begin. Looking further ahead, Sweetwater is earmarked to be a major future production center, and we're working expeditiously towards this operation as both the conventional mill and a CPP for processing ISR production. During the quarter, the Sweetwater plan of operations progressed through the Bureau of Land Management review process, positioning the project for the next phase of federal permitting. Finally, in Saskatchewan, we continued advancing the Roughrider project, one of the highest grade undeveloped uranium projects in the world. More than 30% of the planned 4,000-meter drilling program has now been completed in support of the upcoming prefeasibility study. The broader policy backdrop remains robust. In January 2026, a President Trump issued a Presidential Proclamation directing negotiations under Section 232 related to national security risks associated with imports of process critical minerals, including Uranium. Uranium was formally added to the U.S. Geological Survey Critical Minerals list in November 2025 and is now explicitly covered by this investigation. The proclamation highlighted the United States reliance on foreign uranium processing capacity and emphasize the need to rebuild a secure domestic uranium fuel supply chain. Negotiators are expected to provide a status report by July 13, 2026, after which additional measures for specific remedies may be considered. Against that backdrop, let me briefly summarize the progress we made during the quarter. First, we demonstrated the strength of our unhedged strategy, capturing a strong pricing opportunity. Second, we continued advancing staged production growth, including the completion of the Burke Hollow ISR mine and expansion of our Wyoming ISR production platform. And third, we progressed URC in the next stage of our fuel cycle strategy aimed at strengthening the U.S. nuclear fuel supply chain. All of this was accomplished while maintaining one of the strongest balance sheets in the sector with significant liquidity and no debt. With the largest uranium resource space in the United States, growing production infrastructure and a clear pathway towards expanding our role across the nuclear fuel cycle we believe UEC is well positioned for the next phase of growth in the Uranium market. Before we open the line for questions, I'd like to note that I'm joined today by Josephine Man, our Chief Financial Officer; Scott Melbye, our Executive Vice President; and Brent Berg, our Senior Vice President of U.S. Operations. Together, our leadership team is supported by UEC workforce representing more than 900 years of combined uranium industry experience, which continues to drive our operational execution and strategic development. With that, operator, please open the line for questions.