Conference Call and Webcast on February 26, 2024
LAKEWOOD, Colo., Feb. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ – Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE:UUUU) (TSX:EFR) (“Energy Fuels” or the “Company”) today reported its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2023. The Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K 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.html, 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:
Record Annual Net Income of Nearly $100 Million: During the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company earned net income of $99.76 million, or $0.63 per common share.
Robust Balance Sheet with Over $220 million of Liquidity and No Debt: As of December 31, 2023, the Company had $222.34 million of working capital (versus $116.97 million as of December 31, 2022), including $57.45 million of cash and cash equivalents, $133.04 million of marketable securities (uranium stocks and interest-bearing securities), $38.87 million of inventory, and no debt.
Nearly $45 Million of Additional Liquidity from Market Value of Inventory: At current commodity prices, the Company’s product inventory has a value of approximately $76.10 million, while the balance sheet reflects product inventory carried at cost of $31.16 million.
Uranium Drives Revenue: Revenue was comprised of (i) sales of 560,000 pounds of uranium concentrates (“U3O8”) for $33.28 million, which resulted in a gross profit of $17.96 million and an average gross margin of 54%; (ii) sales of 153 metric tons (“tonnes”) of finished high purity, partially separated mixed rare earth carbonate (“RE Carbonate”) for $2.85 million; and (iii) sale of 79,344 pounds of vanadium (“V2O5”) for $0.87 million.
Alta Mesa Sale Funds Investment in Uranium and Rare Earth Production: The Company realized a gain of $119.26 million on the sale of the Company’s Alta Mesa in situ recovery project in Texas (the “Alta Mesa Sale”) and Prompt Fission Neutron Assets that were used exclusively at Alta Mesa. The cash received from the Alta Mesa Sale helped to fund expenses associated with (i) preparing three (3) of our uranium mines for production and (ii) developing commercial rare earth element (“REE”) separation capabilities.
Well-Stocked to Capture Market Opportunities: As of December 31, 2023, the Company held 685,000 pounds of finished U3O8, 905,000 pounds of finished V2O5, and 11 tonnes of finished RE Carbonate in inventory. The Company holds an additional 436,000 pounds of U3O8 as raw materials and work-in-progress inventory (for total finished, raw material and work-in-progress inventory of 1.12 million pounds of U3O8), along with an estimated 1 – 3 million pounds of solubilized V2O5 in tailings solutions that could be recovered in the future. In December 2023, the Company purchased 100,000 pounds of U3O8 and 480 tonnes of monazite from third parties.
Capitalizing on Strong Uranium Pricing:
During the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company sold 560,000 pounds of U3O8 for $33.28 million or a realized sales price of $59.42 per pound. These sales resulted in a gross profit of $17.96 million ($32.07 per pound of U3O8), or a 54% gross margin.
During 2023, the Company readied three of its permitted and developed uranium mines for uranium production, Pinyon Plain (Arizona), La Sal (Utah) and Pandora (Utah). In late December 2023, the Company announced that all three uranium mines had commenced production on schedule.
Once production is fully ramped up at these mines, which is expected by mid- to late-2024, the Company expects to be producing uranium at a run-rate of 1.1 to 1.4 million pounds per year.
During 2024, the Company expects to produce approximately 150,000 to 500,000 pounds of U3O8 from newly mined conventional ore, stockpiled ore, and recycled alternate feed materials, depending on the timing of the ramp up of production at the Company’s Pinyon Plain, La Sal and Pandora mines, while increasing to higher levels of production in 2025 and beyond.
The Company expects to issue an ore buying schedule in early 2024, describing the terms under which the Company is prepared to buy uranium and uranium/vanadium ore from third-party miners in the vicinity of the White Mesa Mill (the “Mill”), which is expected to contribute to the Company’s production profile.
During 2024, the Company expects to sell 200,000 to 300,000 pounds of U3O8 into its existing portfolio of long-term uranium contracts, of which 200,000 pounds were sold during Q1-2024 at a realized price of $75.13 per pound, which resulted in a gross profit of $38.29 per pound, or gross margin of 51%.
During Q1-2024, the Company contracted to sell an additional 100,000 pounds of uranium in March 2024 at an average sales price of $102.88 per pound, which it expects to result in a gross profit of approximately $66.04 per pound, or approximate gross margin of 64%. Assuming continued strength in uranium prices, the Company intends to capture further opportunities to selectively sell uranium into the spot market during 2024.
In anticipation of continued strength in uranium markets, the Company is preparing two additional mines in Colorado and Wyoming (Whirlwind and Nichols Ranch) for expected production within one year. If market conditions remain strong, the Whirlwind and Nichols Ranch mines could potentially increase Energy Fuels’ uranium production to a run-rate of over two million pounds of U3O8 per year as early as 2025.
In light of the current strength in the uranium market, the Company is planning to conduct exploration drilling on its Nichols Ranch area properties and underground delineation drilling at its Pinyon Plain mine, in order to increase the Company’s uranium resources and mine life at its existing mines, as well as advance permitting on its large-scale Roca Honda, Sheep Mountain and Bullfrog uranium properties for additional uranium production in the future, which could expand the Company’s uranium production to a run-rate of up to five million pounds of U3O8 per year in the coming years.
As of February 16, 2024, the spot price of U3O8 was $102.00 per pound and the long-term price of U3O8, which is the price most relevant for long-term uranium sales contracts, was $72.00 per pound, according to data from TradeTech.
Rare Earth Element Ramp-Up:
The Mill’s REE production is complementary to its uranium production and does not diminish the Mill’s uranium production profile in any way.
The Phase 1 modification and enhancements to the existing solvent extraction (“SX”) circuits at the Mill are expected to be completed on-schedule, and $7 million to $9 million below budget, by the end of Q1-2024, at which time the Company will be able to produce high purity separated REE oxides. Subject to securing sufficient monazite feed, “Phase 1” is expected to position Energy Fuels as one of the world’s leading producers of separated neodymium-praseodymium (“NdPr”) outside of China.
The Mill’s “Phase 1” REE circuit is expected to have the capacity to produce approximately 800 to 1,000 tonnes of separated NdPr oxide per year. For reference, 1,000 tonnes of NdPr can be used in enough permanent REE magnets to power up to 1 million electric vehicles per year. “Phase 1” capital costs are expected to total between $16 million and $18 million, or approximately $7 million to $9 million less than our initial $25 million budget. During Q2-2024, the Company expects to produce about 25 – 35 tonnes of NdPr oxide to commission and optimize the NdPr circuit, after which time the Company expects to begin processing uranium ore and alternate feed materials for the large-scale production of uranium at the Mill for the remainder of the year.
Due to the significant opportunity in REEs, Energy Fuels is engineering further enhancements at the Mill to increase NdPr oxide production capacity to approximately 3,000 tonnes – 5,000 tonnes per year by 2027 (“Phase 2”), and to add a separate crack and leach facility to allow for the simultaneous operation of the Mill’s conventional ore and REE processing circuits. The Company also intends to produce separated dysprosium (“Dy”), terbium (“Tb”) and potentially other advanced REE materials in the future from monazite and potentially other REE process streams by 2028 (“Phase 3”). Phase 2 and Phase 3 are subject to permitting, financing and receipt of sufficient monazite feed.
To secure a cost-effective and reliable supply of monazite ore, Energy Fuels made significant progress in developing its Bahia Project in Brazil. During the first half of 2023, the Company completed 2,266 meters of sonic drilling at its Bahia Project in Brazil to confirm and further delineate the rare earth, titanium, and zirconium mineralization at the Bahia Project. The Company commenced further sonic drilling in Q1-2024. The Company is awaiting the results from the 2023 drilling campaign. The Company expects to complete an SK-1300 and NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate on the Bahia Project during 2024.
In December 2023, the Company announced it had signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) with Astron Corporation Limited to jointly develop the Donald Rare Earth and Mineral Sands Project, located in the Wimmera Region of the State of …