Energy Fuels Inc. (AMEX:UUUU) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

So, I don’t know if I can answer it any more accurately than that at this point in time, but it will always be driven on the best outcome for our shareholders.

Heiko Ihle: No, I was cognizant that there wasn’t going to be a scientific answer to this and I mean, obviously you are a very big shareholder yourself, so I would assume that this is going to be very much driven by shareholders. Thanks a lot, I appreciate the question and I will get back to queue.

Mark Chalmers: Thank you Heiko.

Operator: next question we have Joseph Reagor with Roth MKM.

Joseph Reagor: Hey Mark and team, thanks for taking the questions. I guess, first thing, Mark, you mentioned that, obviously you are not moving away from being a uranium company and that you are looking at opportunities there. Do you think that some of the assets that are still in the portfolio might not make the most sense for you guys and could potentially sell an asset to generate cash to buy a different asset?

Mark Chalmers: At this point in time, the existing assets Joe that we are not planning to sell any of them at this point in time. They are good assets, in fact, we are looking at reinitiating. We have actually reinitiated permitting on, further permitting evaluation on a number of them, including Roka Honda and Sheep Mountain. And we feel that there is a big value lift just by advancing those and getting those fully permitted. Now, the Sheep Mountain Project is fully permitted to mine, but to go to the Sweetwater Mill that is nearby, we are looking at evaluating whether that could potentially be heap leach. So, we are not planning to sell anything at this time. But again, whatever we do will be focusing on trying to uplift and improve whatever investments that we have or assets that we have and we will do that dynamically as is prudent for the circumstances in the market.

Joseph Reagor: Okay, fair enough. And then, you know, thinking about the assets that you do have, what do you think the maximum production rate you guys could reach would be between the Nickels Ranch facility and the White Mesa Mill, you know, if pricing were to cooperate?

Mark Chalmers: Well, when you look at – including La Sal, Whirlwind, Pinyon Plane, when you look at them, I tell people that without major capital investments, we can get up to around two million pounds per year because most of these projects are fully constructed, fully paid for, they don’t require a lot of capital, they require some working capital. But if you start, say the uranium market really gets – improves and really frothy in terms of demand for uranium and we start investing, say, a hundred, another hundred or 200 million, maybe 300 million in capital, we could take it up to somewhere in the order of five million pounds per year. So the beauty that in the place that we are at, that is such a sweet spot right now is having the flexibility to call on these different projects that we have, based on whatever contracts we have in place in the market with limited new capital, which is becoming very expensive as you can appreciate.

Joseph Reagor: Yes. Tell me about it. So I guess last thing is on the Phase 1 for the Rare Earth separation plan, are you guys planning to put out like a PEA or feasibility study or something before you go forward with it or are you just using the internal study?