The price of ASX-listed uranium stocks responded to uranium spot moving up over US$3+ late Friday in North America, by skyrocketing at the start of the new trading week.

The price of uranium is now at 12-year highs and climbing, with spot U moving into the $70/lb range – to the delight of long-time investors and new alike.

It appears the broader market is beginning to wake to a new reality for uranium, the ultimate NetZero rocks needed to save the world from dangerous global warming.

The worldwide scramble for uranium is on, with governments as diverse as Poland, Egypt and Sweden embracing new nuclear builds and tech giants like Microsoft starting to invest in small nuclear reactors for power-hungry AI and cloud computing centres.

Big nuclear nations like Japan, the USA, UK and Canada are doubling down on nuclear, with extensions of existing plants, restarts from idled plants (see Japan and Korea) and new builds forthcoming. 

Geopolitically, the uranium supply squeeze is starting to bite.

France is pulling military and diplomats out of Niger after a coup there, placing 25% of EU’s uranium supply in doubt.

We are also yet to see details of a likely major deal between Saudi Arabia-USA- and Israel. The diplomatic dealmaking would give the Arabian Kingdom the right to develop a massive nuclear energy industry, needed to power ambitious plans for the 21st Century and beyond.

Meanwhile, China is working on deals with Kazakhstan to secure a long-term uranium supply chain for their fledgling mass nuclear build-out. 

China hopes to secure 20% or more of its energy needs from nuclear and they aren’t waiting around.

Analysts suggested Kazatomprom and China’s CNNC could announce a new major supply deal soon, in addition to existing output deals. This could be complicated by Russian interests and complicate the supply picture even more so for western utilities.

There is also speculation BHP is no longer selling uranium into the spot market from Olympic Dam, putting more pressure on fuel buyers to make deals at higher prices on short notice. Australia holds one-third of the global uranium supply.

This will no doubt leave the cupboard bare for many nuclear energy utilities, who will be forced to seek new deals.

Meanwhile, The Economist this week reports major uranium suppliers are out of supply until at least 2027 with long-term deals a lock.

The report said 2024 could be a dire year for anyone looking for new uranium supply, with mines needed for new sources still years away. 

The supply and demand picture is changing daily and many factors are at play that simply cannot be modelled with any confidence.

The top ASX uranium stocks we are tracking on Monday were:

Deep Yellow (DYL) up 11.3% to A$1.19

Bannerman Energy (BMN) up 9.7% to $A2.71

Aura Energy (AEE) up 8.5% to .32c

Alligator Energy (AGE) up 8% to .055c

Boss Energy (BOE) up 6% to A$4.77

We await to see what happens in European markets before North America uranium stocks open for next stage of ignition.

Post updated to reflect close of ASX trade Monday September 24 below