Through Wednesday’s trade, the price of uranium hit an asking bid of US$64/lb – up about $4 after sailing through the $60 mark on Friday.

That’s the first time in the US$60 range since before the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

The sector sentiment has been supercharged by a major meeting of global uranium stakeholders in London last week.

Attendees of the World Nuclear Symposium left buzzing after three days of events and side meetings with miners, power utilities, investors, physical uranium trusts and industry analysts. 

At the event, the World Nuclear Association projected world reactor requirements for uranium to surge to almost 130,000 tonnes (~285 million pounds) in 2040. That’s up from an estimate of 65,650 tonnes in 2023, Mining.com reported.

“I think that there will be a super-spike in the uranium price. Not a doubling or a tripling, but a true super-spike that will stun everyone,” Praetorian Capital Fund manager Harris Kupperman wrote in a note to investors.

Meanwhile, US investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald published a note to investors stating that the conference had convinced their analyst’s uranium could easily ‘gap up’ on major players entering the industry.

“In the event, a buyer was to show up looking for ~1MMlb, the order probably takes 3-4 weeks to fill and gaps the price up by $10/lb,” an analyst said in a note.

Managing Principle of Nuclear Fuel Associates LLC, when speaking to Crux Investor said uranium miners are going to have to make quick decisions about financing as demand from utilities ramps up.

“Now it’s the time, the light has gone green… where you have to go to your board to say you need (hundreds) of millions of dollars and contractors,” he said.

Physical investment firms buying up

It now looks like the fun is just about to begin for uranium, with a flywheel effect in play.

Sprott Physical Uranium Trust starting to raise cash to buy up uranium on the market imminently.

Other similar funds are also likely to enter the market soon, analysts suggested.