{"id":8947,"date":"2013-11-24T13:28:59","date_gmt":"2013-11-24T17:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/?p=8947"},"modified":"2013-11-24T13:28:59","modified_gmt":"2013-11-24T17:28:59","slug":"why-investing-in-uranium-thorium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pgmcapital.com\/nl\/why-investing-in-uranium-thorium\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Investing in Uranium &#038; Thorium?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Uranium-mine.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-8948\" alt=\"Uranium-Mine\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Uranium-mine.png\" width=\"324\" height=\"226\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/uranium-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8949 alignright\" alt=\"Uranium -U 92-\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/uranium-1.jpg\" width=\"203\" height=\"194\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dear\u00a0<strong>PGM Capita<\/strong>l Blog readers,<br \/>\nIn this weekend blog article we want to discuss with you why investing in Uranium can be so lucrative in the coming 4-6 years from now.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>About Uranium:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Uranium\u00a0is a silvery-white\u00a0metallic\u00a0chemical element\u00a0in the\u00a0actinide\u00a0series of the\u00a0periodic table, with\u00a0symbol\u00a0<b>U<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0atomic number\u00a092, which means that an uranium atom has 92\u00a0protons\u00a0and 92\u00a0electrons.<\/li>\n<li>Uranium is weakly\u00a0radioactive\u00a0because all its\u00a0isotopes\u00a0are unstable,\u00a0known isotopes, U-233 &#8211; U-238.<\/li>\n<li>The most common isotopes of uranium are\u00a0uranium-238\u00a0(which has 146 neutrons and accounts for almost 99.3% of the uranium found in nature) and\u00a0uranium-235\u00a0(which has 143 neutrons, accounting for 0.7% of the element found naturally)<\/li>\n<li>After Plutonium, Uranium has the second highest\u00a0atomic weight.<\/li>\n<li>The main use of uranium in the civilian sector is to fuel\u00a0nuclear power plants.\n<ul>\n<li>One kilogram of uranium-235 can theoretically produce about\u00a080\u00a0tera-joules\u00a0of energy (8\u00d710<sup>13<\/sup>\u00a0joules), assuming complete fission; as much\u00a0energy\u00a0as 3000\u00a0tonnes\u00a0of\u00a0coal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>About Thorium:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Thorium<\/b>\u00a0is a naturally occurring\u00a0radioactive\u00a0chemical element\u00a0with the symbol\u00a0<b>Th\u00a0<\/b>and\u00a0atomic number\u00a090.<\/li>\n<li>Thorium is more abundant in nature than uranium.<\/li>\n<li>It is fertile rather than fissile, and can only be used as a fuel in conjunction with a fissile material such as recycled plutonium.<\/li>\n<li>Thorium fuels can breed fissile uranium-233 to be used in various kinds of nuclear reactors.<\/li>\n<li>Molten salt reactors are well suited to thorium fuel, as normal fuel fabrication is avoided.<\/li>\n<li>Scientists\u00a0believe thorium is key to developing a new generation of cleaner, safer nuclear power.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>THE SUPPLY AND DEMAND PICTURE:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Uranium:<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\">The worldwide production of uranium in 2011 amounted to 54,610\u00a0tonnes, of which 19,451 tonnes (35.61%) was mined in\u00a0Kazakhstan. Other important uranium mining countries are\u00a0Canada\u00a09,145 tonnes (16.74%),\u00a0Australia\u00a05,983 tonnes (10.95%),\u00a0Niger\u00a04,351 tonnes (7.97%) Namibia\u00a03,258 tonnes (5.96%),\u00a0and\u00a0Russia\u00a02,993 tonnes (5.48%).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Uranium production figures, 2002-2012\" href=\"http:\/\/www.world-nuclear.org\/info\/Facts-and-Figures\/Uranium-production-figures\/\" target=\"_blank\">Source:<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Below chart shows the world Uranium production by Country in the period, 2001 &#8211; 2011<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/World-production-Uranium.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8953 aligncenter\" alt=\"World production Uranium 2001 - 2011\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/World-production-Uranium.png\" width=\"490\" height=\"352\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As can be seen from above chart, the world supply of uranium production is higher because of increased production from Kazakhstan. Apart from Kazakhstan, production is flat or slightly declining.\u00a0Kazakhstan claims\u00a0that it has the ability to eventually ramp up production to 30,000 metric tonnes per year, but indicates that it is planning an output plateau of 20,000 to 25,000 metric tonnes a year.<\/p>\n<p>Below chart shows a history of uranium consumption and uranium mined.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/world_uranium_production_and_demand.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8961 aligncenter\" alt=\"world_uranium_production_and_demand\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/world_uranium_production_and_demand.png\" width=\"490\" height=\"242\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The reason that currently supply from mines can be less than current demand is because some of the supply is from previously mined uranium. Back in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, far more uranium was mined than was needed for peaceful purposes. A large part of this excess uranium was used by both the United States and the Soviet Union to make nuclear bombs. Some of it was stockpiled as well.<\/p>\n<p>It is worth mentioning that due to an agreement between the USA and Russia, over the last 20 years\u00a0the Russians have dismantled about 20,000 nuclear warheads, processed their high-enriched uranium cores into low-enriched fuel, and sent it to the United States.<\/p>\n<p>As can be seen from below 12-year chart, uranium-oxide (also called yellowcake) prices\u00a0have plummeted due to the &#8220;Great Recession&#8221; and Japan&#8217;s Fukushima disaster from its peak in 2007, of US$ 136.00 per pound, since the <a title=\"Great Recession\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Great_Recession\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Great Recession 2008-2009<\/strong><\/a>, and Japan\u2019s <a title=\"Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Fukushima disaster<\/strong> <\/a>of March 2011 to a minimum of US$ 34.00 a pound by early August, this year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Screen-Shot-2013-11-23-at-3.40.41-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8962 aligncenter\" alt=\"Uranium 12 year price chart\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Screen-Shot-2013-11-23-at-3.40.41-PM.png\" width=\"543\" height=\"337\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As can been seen from below 6-month chart, \u00a0the price of Uranium is showing signs of recovery, since its bottom of early August this year and has closed at US$ 36.00 per pound on Friday, November 22nd, 2013.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/GraphEngine.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8966 aligncenter\" alt=\"Uranium 6-month price chart\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/GraphEngine.png\" width=\"504\" height=\"360\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Thorium:<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span>Below table shows the estimated world thorium resources:<\/p>\n<table id=\"tablestyle\" cellspacing=\"2\" cellpadding=\"1\" align=\"center\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Country<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Tonnes<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<td>India<\/td>\n<td>846,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<td>Turkey<\/td>\n<td>744,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<td>Brazil<\/td>\n<td>606,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<td>Australia<\/td>\n<td>521,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<td>USA<\/td>\n<td>434,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<td>Egypt<\/td>\n<td>380,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<td>Norway<\/td>\n<td>320,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<td>Venezuela<\/td>\n<td>300,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<td>Canada<\/td>\n<td>172,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<td>Russia<\/td>\n<td>155,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<td>South Africa<\/td>\n<td>148,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>China<\/td>\n<td>100,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<td>Greenland<\/td>\n<td>86,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Finland<\/td>\n<td>60,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Sweden<\/td>\n<td>50,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Kazakhstan<\/td>\n<td>50,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<td>Other countries<\/td>\n<td>413,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<td><strong>World total<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>5,385,000<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>PGM COMMENTS:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Uranium:<\/span><br \/>\n<\/strong>Despite all the controversy surrounding nuclear energy, global demand for enriched uranium and nuclear energy, is actually higher today than it was before Japan\u2019s nuclear meltdown in 2011. And when it comes to China, there\u2019s simply no other country like it, expanding as much, or as quickly, into nuclear energy.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Within the next 10 to 15 years, China is set to surpass the United States as the largest uranium-consuming nation in the world.\u00a0As Mining.com reported, \u201cAs of November 2012, China had 15 operating reactors (11.9 GWe of installed capacity) and 26 reactors were under construction (27.6 GWe). That amounts to about 42% of reactors under construction worldwide. Additionally, 51 reactors were planned (57.5 GWe) with their building due to start within three years, and many more than 100 units have been proposed, which are likely to be commissioned before 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">As you can see from below chart, the United States currently has just over 100 operating nuclear reactors. Before 2030, China plans to more than double that figure.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/m1mwar2j6adl1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8989 aligncenter\" alt=\"World Nuclear Power Picture\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/m1mwar2j6adl1.jpg\" width=\"481\" height=\"315\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">As can be seen from below 2000-2050 chart the world will experience a peak in Uranium production by 2020, while demand will keep on rising<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/uranium-supply-forecast-from-2001-iaea-study_analysis-of-uranium-supply-to-2050.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8974 aligncenter\" alt=\"Uranium-supply-forecast-from-2001- 2050\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/uranium-supply-forecast-from-2001-iaea-study_analysis-of-uranium-supply-to-2050.png\" width=\"509\" height=\"331\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">With the final shipment of civilian nuclear reactor fuel made from Soviet atomic bombs\u00a0leaving\u00a0port for the United States on Thursday, November 14, 2013,\u00a0thus\u00a0ending a post-Cold War program that has been a long-running boon for the nuclear power industry,\u00a0we&#8217;ll see\u00a0a disequilibrium\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0starting 2014 &#8211;\u00a0in the\u00a0supply and demand picture for Uranium, which has the potential for triggering the second leg of the bull-market for this commodity.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">The latest stock price recovery of the two biggest miners of Uranium\u00a0that export\u00a0to China,\u00a0namely\u00a0the<b>\u00a0<\/b>Canadian and Australian miners, Cameco\u00a0(NYSE: CCJ) and\u00a0BHP Billiton\u00a0(NYSE: BHP), can also be seen as proof of the turnaround in Uranium price as discussed above.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Thorium:<\/span><br \/>\n<\/strong>Research and development of thorium-based nuclear reactors, primarily the\u00a0<a title=\"Liquid fluoride thorium reactor\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Liquid_fluoride_thorium_reactor\" target=\"_blank\">Liquid fluoride thorium reactor<\/a>\u00a0(LFTR),\u00a0MSR\u00a0design, has been or is now being done in\u00a0India,\u00a0China,\u00a0Norway,\u00a0U.S.,\u00a0Israel\u00a0and\u00a0Russia.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Below Image shows a schematic of a Thorium based LFTR<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/thorium-graph.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8982 aligncenter\" alt=\"Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pgm-blog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/thorium-graph.png\" width=\"460\" height=\"350\" \/><\/a>If you want to profit from this coming Thorium and Uranium boom, please feel free to contact us for an appointment.<\/p>\n<p>Before following any investment advise, please consider your investment horizon, financial position and risk tolerances and keep in mind that commodities prices as well as stocks of their miners may be very volatile and that sharp corrections may happen in the short term.<\/p>\n<p>Until Next Time<\/p>\n<p>Eric Panneflek<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear\u00a0PGM Capital Blog readers, In this weekend blog article we want to discuss with you why investing in Uranium can be so lucrative in the coming 4-6 years from now. About Uranium: Uranium\u00a0is a silvery-white\u00a0metallic\u00a0chemical element\u00a0in the\u00a0actinide\u00a0series of the\u00a0periodic table, with\u00a0symbol\u00a0U\u00a0and\u00a0atomic number\u00a092, which means that an uranium atom has 92\u00a0protons\u00a0and 92\u00a0electrons. Uranium is weakly\u00a0radioactive\u00a0because all<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pgmcapital.com\/nl\/why-investing-in-uranium-thorium\/\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9,24,10,19,20,13,15,1,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commodities","category-emerging-markets","category-energy","category-eric-panneflek","category-financial-news","category-general-information","category-market-volatility","category-pgm-capital","category-uncategorized","category-world-economic-outlook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pgmcapital.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pgmcapital.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pgmcapital.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pgmcapital.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pgmcapital.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pgmcapital.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pgmcapital.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pgmcapital.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pgmcapital.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}