US Uranium Energy Corp (UEC) has launched the United States Uranium Refining & Conversion Corp (UR&C), a wholly owned subsidiary, to pursue the feasibility of developing a new American uranium refining and conversion facility.
“Positioning UEC as the only vertically integrated US company with uranium mining, processing, refining and conversion capabilities is both a significant commercial opportunity and a strategic necessity for the United States,” said Amir Adnani, UEC President and CEO.
UEC said its end-to-end capabilities would provide a secure, geopolitically reliable source of uranium hexafluoride (UF6), the feedstock for enrichment that enables the production of the low-enriched uranium (LEU) and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) required by large, small, and advanced reactors for undersupplied domestic and allied markets.
“We are structuring UR&C as a subsidiary to advance this initiative in a fiscally optimal manner, including tactical partnerships and direct investments,” UEC noted. “This allows UEC to maintain a strong balance sheet and continue to prioritise its core uranium mining and processing business, while separately advancing UR&C to enhance UEC shareholder value.”
UEC’s priorities are to build on its existing uranium platform by advancing a fully American supply chain to support growing domestic enrichment; ensuring alignment with US policy and Defense Production Act (DPA) authorities; and working in close partnership with government and industry.
“For far too long, the US has relied on foreign sources to supply and process the critical materials essential to our national and economic security,” said Spencer Abraham, UEC Chairman and Former US Secretary of Energy. “We are seeking to address this problem by advancing a vertically integrated supply chain for natural UF6 providing essential feedstock for commercial enrichment to power the world’s largest nuclear reactor fleet and by supplying the unobligated US-origin uranium required to fuel America’s nuclear navy. The proposed facility directly aligns with US policy and would contribute to unlocking American enrichment growth.”
The proposed facility is the result of work initiated with Fluor Corporation in July 2024 and supported by a recently completed conceptual study. The study contemplates a new and modern US conversion facility sized to produce around 10,000 MtU a year as UF6, including associated infrastructure. Total installed capacity (with contingency) was developed at a conceptual level and forms the basis for advancing more detailed engineering and commercial planning.
UEC has also initiated discussions on potential siting options, evaluating factors such as logistics, workforce availability, public acceptance, local incentives, and synergies with other fuel cycle facilities.
The project’s progress will be contingent on several factors, including completion and assessment of additional engineering and economic studies, securing strategic government commitments, utility contracts, regulatory approvals, and favourable market conditions. UEC has begun initial discussions with the US government, state-level energy authorities, utilities, and financial entities.
UR&C will position UEC as the only American company with a nuclear fuel supply chain capability from U3O8 production to refining, conversion, and delivery of natural UF6 to enrichment plants for LEU and HALEU production. The initiative responds to federal policy under President Trump’s recent Executive Orders that call for a fourfold expansion of US nuclear capacity to 400 gigawatts by 2050 and reduced reliance on foreign sources of uranium.
UEC points to near all-time high pricing for UF6 conversion – currently, the conversion price is in the range of $64-66/kgU in the spot market and approximately $52/kgU in the long-term market. This is indicative of a highly undersupplied market and a major bottleneck in the US nuclear fuel supply chain.
Market conditions and current federal government support create a prime opportunity for a US company to develop a new uranium refining and UF6 conversion plant, addressing the demand for an expansion of domestic conversion capabilities.
The current development and design focus aims to build the largest UF6 conversion facility in the US among the most modern in the Western world. The conversion services plant will have a designed capacity to produce around10,000 tonnes uranium (tU) a year as UF6, representing a substantial share of US annual demand of 18,000 tU a year.
Building on the year of engineering and design work already completed with Fluor Corporation, a long-standing US Department of Energy contractor with relevant nuclear-project experience, provides UR&C with a clear first-mover advantage. UEC will move the project forward in stages, ensuring disciplined progress, while providing updates as evaluations, partnerships, and government engagement advance.
UEC is advancing the next generation of low-cost, environmentally friendly In-Situ Recovery mining uranium projects in the US and high-grade conventional projects in Canada. The Company has three hub and spoke platforms in South Texas and Wyoming with a combined licensed production capacity of 12.1m pounds U3O8 a year. These production platforms are anchored by licensed Central Processing Plants (CPPs) and served by multiple ISR uranium projects. In August 2024, ISR operations began at the Christensen Ranch project in Wyoming, sending uranium loaded resin to the Irigaray CPP in Wyoming.
Currently, Honeywell’s Metropolis Works plant, built in 1958, in southern Illinois, is the only uranium conversion facility in the US. It was temporarily shut down from 2017 to 2023 due to poor market conditions but was restarted in July 2023.
