The uranium industry was rocked this week by news that Cameco (CCJ – news –
Cramer’s Take – Rating), the world’s biggest uranium producer, suffered a disastrous
flood at its Cigar Lake mine.
Cigar Lake was supposed to go into production in 2008 and produce as much as
18 million pounds of uranium a year; 18 million pounds — that’s more than a
tenth of last year’s total global demand of 171 million pounds. In 2008, uranium
demand was already expected to exceed supply by 25 million pounds. With Cigar
Lake out of commission, that gap will be 32 million pounds — an increase of
30%.
