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 welcome to CEO insights I'm Marilyn dezman with investing news.com I'm speaking with Michael Collins CEO of nuclear fuels hi Michael Hi Marilyn uh let's start our conversation with just sort of you know your take on what's going on with the uranium Market which is you know uh with the soaring prices and the positive you know General positive outlook on it and how it's affected impacting um the resource sector yeah so to frame it up we're we're really in a long-term uranium bull

market now the uranium uh topped $1 $100 a pound earlier this year and it's really being driven by demand as opposed to a supply issue so that gives it long-term legs and that's brought a lot of investors in who have multi-year timelines looking for production development as opposed to just looking for Discovery and turning a buck and fleeing so it's um pretty exciting time um it also gives us as expiration codes the ability to uh make plans that that are more longterm and that's that's

really good too given your projects are in the US and you know with as the world's largest consumer of nuclear energy the US really has no uh uranium production to speak of uh generally with the US push to shore up domestic Supply how does that um how is that impacting your um the trajectory of your projects and what are you seeing in terms of of you know as it translates down there down the line yeah so there is there is a lot of lot of support for reshoring production in the us both by the government and also by the utilities

who want that certainty of Supply um in a lot of ways it it's uh um filtered down into the state level where people are more supportive of uh permitting and moving projects forward and they're also I think looking at it as a long-term opportunity as opposed to just a flash in the pan so it's been it's been really good for us right so maybe this is a good time to talk about your project uh that you're focusing on right now could you provide us uh sort of an overview of that why make what makes it a compelling

project okay yeah so our key project is the KC project in Wyoming and the KC project is what's called a r front style mineralization uh project and the the method for developing those is called insitu recovery um so it's a low impact uh mining or or uranium extraction method because it's not really mining uh we end up with really a well field um injecting oxygenated water and withdrawing uranium Rich water um and and it there's no tailings piles there's no waste rock piles or shafts or pits so

it comes out in the end of the day is being something that's much quicker to permit and is more socially acceptable in a community um and at the end of the day when we do Reclamation you know you cap off the well heads and you spread some grass so it's it it has very little long-term impact so that's given us an opportunity focusing on that type of ventilation has given us an opportunity to look for resources that we see as production potential in the relative near term um in Wyoming Wyoming in

particular is uh one of the two best places to to permit uranium operations and uh it's an agreement state so the Federal Regulations devolve locally and that allows us to see of you know in the future permitting Windows of 2 to three years for operations which is exceptional for anything in the resource extraction business um the project itself uh has over 110 miles of BR fronts mapped on it so those are the the zones of uranium enrichment within the sedimentary rocks um we also have a historic database at 3700 drill holes

that's um from the 1970s and 80s um that previously that was found three years ago by Encore Energy um and Encore Energy actually vended this project into nuclear fuels so we've got a very large project over 42 square miles um 33 Mi of trend 110 miles a rollf front um the the data that we need to be able to effectively and efficiently Target resource building and move that project forward to um to give it economic critical status so and in fact Encore has a backin right to the project so

they can actually if when I when I can prove up a 15 million pound resource they can put their hand up and say yeah we really like that we want to take 50% 51% interest in the project and to do so um they will have to finance our 49% and also give us 2.5 times our cash back and perhaps more fundamentally they have the technical team to both permit the mine or permit them the uranium operation and also uh the technical team to build and run it so it's a unique opportunity for an expiration Co to have a window to

being a producer without having to build all of those those um technical teams and and management and all that kind of stuff so we're pretty excited about Casey it's it's an exceptional operation we've got a drill permit that's just gone in there uh with the state for over 600 drill holes next year um KY is is unique in a number of of other ways it's um about 95% of the land that we hold is either a private surface or state lease um and those those two conditions give us a whole lot more flexibility in where

we want to drill um what notification we have to give to drill and um our ability to change our plans based on what we're getting from results on a day-to-day basis so it's a very flexible Dynamic project with with um I think a world class uh potential for resource building so what's the plans for 2024 2024 we're waiting for the snow to come off and we'll be we have uh true two drill rigs reserved at this point uh we've got a contract on two Rigs and as well we'll have at least 600 drill holes permitted

and uh we'll be looking to just hit it really hard um working on uh not necessarily resource definition but filling out the card so that we can figure out where we can see uh the fastest route to getting to that 15 million pound Target right so we're here at pdac and you've done a pretty good job at of um sort of providing the the benefits and advantages of the project yeah uh if you're speaking to to an investor today uh and summarizing you know what makes uh nuclear fuels a compelling investment opportunity what

do you say to them uh so what I actually what I the way I'd like to frame it is is that that we are a an expiration Co but we've got a top tier project in Casey um and we can we have a window to production in in the relative sort of medium term I guess but uh one of the other fundamental things right now that we see is that you know the um the producers and the near-term producers they've all taken a big run up the expiration companies in the uranium space they've done okay but they haven't really you know they're dos

haven't been pushed up yet and that's really you know the way um uh mineral Cycles always work we should be next and we're top of the Heap I think and we should really benefit and benefit early and and quickly with that in terms of our share price so great opportunity thanks Michael for taking the time and speaking with me today thank you so much and thanks everyone for watching join us again Lex time for another engaging conversation on coo inside if you like this video make sure you subscribe to

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