Monsters of Rock: Paladin is this week's undisputed mid and large cap king as uranium and lithium climb

What a day to be in uranium and lithium.

Yellow and green metal bulls have doubled down on their bets in the two rising commodity spaces today, sending ASX-listed equities soaring.

The Sprott Physical Uranium Trust has been pumping the water uranium has been buried under since the Fukushima disaster in 2011 by buying up yellowcake supplies, pushing the nuclear fuel to six year highs.

Lithium miners? Just as good.

Pricing agency Fastmarkets says prices for premium 99.5% pure lithium carbonate chemicals are up 13.6% this past week, the highest weekly gain since it began the price assessment in October 2017.

Hydroxide prices have made similar gains and the market is so tight prices for technical grade products, which are used in batteries but are also used for other manufacturing activities like ceramics and glass, are keeping pace with battery grade.

A distributor in Asia told @FastmarketsMB they see a supply shortage of lithium, especially carbonate, as being “almost unavoidable in 2022, since suppliers have already begun notifying their major customers that they would not be able to supply requirements in the coming year.”

— Peter Hannah (@PHmetals) September 3, 2021

Orocobre (ASX:ORE) led the ASX-listed lithium miners today with a 7% gain.

Iron ore miners performed admirably despite a slight drop in prices overnight, which has Australia’s richest export commodity trading around the US$140/t mark, with materials up more than 1%.

PALADIN ENERGY (ASX:PDN)

The undisputed king of the big miners this week, Paladin enjoyed a free ride of almost 24% today on bullish exuberance about rising uranium prices from investors.

It owns 75% of the Langer-Heinrich mine in Namibia, which was shut in 2018 at a time of bargain bin uranium prices.

The company raised some $218m earlier this year to back its relaunch plans, and is waiting on higher contract prices to support supply deals with utilities.

The $2 billion-plus company is up around 55% over the past five trading days.

Paladin Energy share price today:

MINERAL RESOURCES (ASX:MIN)

Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources wants to boss the West Pilbara and help a deep-pocketed consortium of international investors and itself develop a new iron ore hub around the Ashburton region in WA’s north.

Part of those plans were a staged top of the market $400 million cash deal to buy Red Hill Iron (ASX:RHI) out of its 40% stake in the Red Hill Iron Ore JV, that will sit alongside MinRes’ share in the APIJV owned with AMCI, Posco and Baosteel.

Red Hill shareholders voted up the deal because why would they not? MinRes has already paid the initial instalment, delivering Red Hill a massive $200 million in cash to spend right now or pocket for a rainy day.

MinRes was up 2.6% today and remains more than 40% up year to date despite recent falls in the iron ore price.