Resources Top 5: US wants to spend $US4.4bn on local enriched uranium, all the ASX stocks fly

US is reportingly seeking US$4.4bn to buy enriched uranium directly from domestic producers
On the ASX it is a sea of green for the uranium cohort, led by GTI, 92 Energy and Peninsula
American West Metals receives “best assays to date” — a 105m-long interval of high-grade zinc and copper

Here are the top small cap resources movers in early trade, Wednesday June 8.

ALL THE URANIUM STOCKS

The US is reportedly seeking $US4.4bn to buy enriched uranium directly from domestic producers in efforts to wean itself from Russian supply.

“Still, it won’t be easy for the US to jump-start the domestic uranium industry,” writes Bloomberg’s Ari Natter.

“The country has only one remaining commercial enrichment facility — a New Mexico plant owned by Urenco Ltd, a British-German-Dutch consortium.”

It didn’t stop the Global X Uranium ETF jumping as much as 7.4% to its highest intraday price in a month on the news:

Global X Uranium ETF over the past month. Pic: Yahoo Finance

Uranium punters are excited.

Got domestic #uranium? 🙌📈🚀 @quakes99 @Darky999 @hkuppy @timseymour pic.twitter.com/9QYveA0Ojk

— Uranium Corgi (@UrTokenCorgi) June 7, 2022

On the ASX it is a sea of green for the uranium cohort, led by North America-focused GTI Energy (ASX:GTR), 92 Energy (ASX:92E), and Peninsula Energy (ASX:PEN).

GTR has started the approvals process for around 12,000m of follow-up drilling at the Thor ISR Uranium Project as well as 18,000m of maiden drilling at the Wicket, Teebo, Odin and Loki projects.

The company is also acquiring 5260ha of claims at Green Mountain in Wyoming, abutting Rio Tinto’s claims and adjacent to its existing Great Divide Basin (GDB) projects.

92E is focused on its GMZ uranium within the Gemini project in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, where it recently flagged high-grade uranium (> 1.00% U3O8) in two drill holes.

For context, 1.00% U3O8 is over 10 times the average grade of mined uranium deposits elsewhere in the world.

And PEN recently started a US$3.4 million early preparatory works program at the Lance Project in Wyoming, designed to facilitate an accelerated restart and ramp-up of production operations, should a final investment decision be approved.

NOW WATCH: Uranium – is an explosion to the upside imminent?

GTR, 92E and PEN share price charts:

AMERICAN WEST METALS (ASX:AW1)

AW1 has received “best assays to date” from the ‘West Desert’ project, including a 105m-long interval of high-grade zinc and copper in hole WD22-03.

The 4^th hole of the program breaks down into a bunch of high-grade sections, like 16.47m @ 10.22% zinc, 0.26% copper, 0.17g/t gold, 16.24g/t silver, and 48.63g/t indium.

“We are thrilled to share the diamond drill results from WD22-03, as the program continues to define high-grade mineralisation at West Desert, substantially enhancing the resource potential,” AW1 managing director Dave O’Neill says.

“The intersections within WD22-03 display outstanding thicknesses and grade which continue to highlight the significant scale and quality of the West Desert Deposit.

“The assay results and drill hole location are strategically favourable and provide further support for potential future underground development.

“We look forward to reporting further strong results from the pending assays for the other completed drill holes in the coming weeks.”

Assay results from the drilling will feed into a resource update for West Desert and maiden 2012 JORC resource estimate.

The Western Desert project in Utah – ~150km from Rio Tinto’s legendary Bingham Canyon mine — already has a 59 million tonne resource inventory.

$20m market cap AW1 is up 81% in 2022. It had $5.17m in the bank at the end of March.

CZR RESOURCES (ASX:CZR)

(Up on no news)

The resurgent Mark Creasy controlled iron ore play must’ve turned heads at the Resources Rising Stars Conference where it is presenting today.

CZR’s ‘Robe Mesa’ iron ore project – right next door to Rio Tinto in the Pilbara – is now 52% bigger following a recent resource upgrade.

The upsized 37.5Mt at 56% Fe resource (62.6% Fe calcined, 55% Fe cut-off grade) allows CZR to increase production from 2Mtpa to 3Mtpa in the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS), which is ramping up.

“Our objective at Robe Mesa is to grow the production rate to 3Mtpa and increase mine life,” CZR managing director Stefan Murphy says.

“This in turn is aimed at increasing free cashflow generation and overall financial returns.

“These results will feed into the mine planning and design work now underway.

“At the same time, we are updating our cost model through the DFS, targeting lower transport costs from export locations closer to the Robe Mesa deposit than were considered in the PFS.”

The 2020 PFS envisaged a 2Mtpa project delivering project cash-flows of +$90M over a five-year life of mine.

Drilling will resume within the next two weeks. Diamond drilling will support CZR’s metallurgical program and generate bulk product samples for customer review. RC drilling will focus on infill and extensional drilling, converting Inferred to higher confidence Indicated resources, critical for reporting Ore Reserves.

The $60m market cap stock is up 110% year-to-date. It had $4.4m in the bank at the end of March.