Energy Fuels Inc (TSE:EFR) (NYSEMKT:UUUU) has told investors it expects to be debt-free by the end of 2020 as the USA's largest uranium miner repeated its production guidance for the year and updated on its growing inventories.
In a wide-ranging update, the company noted that it has recently redeemed half of its total debentures outstanding, distributing C$10.43 million of cash to holders. Only C$10.43 million of the total principal amount of the debentures remain outstanding, which are due on December 31, 2020, it added.
READ: Energy Fuels to redeem half of C$20.86M debentures outstanding
"The strength of Energy Fuels' balance sheet is unsurpassed in the global mid and junior uranium mining sectors today", Mark S Chalmers, Energy Fuel's chief executive said in the statement.
"Indeed, no other comparable uranium miner to my knowledge has Energy Fuels' inventory levels, and many are incurring significant debt to advance their development and exploration projects," he continued, adding that the group expected to be "debt-free" by end 2020.
Energy Fuels told investors it expects to produce between 125,000 and 175,000 pounds of uranium this year, mainly from pond returns and alternate feed material recycling at the White Mesa Mill in Utah.
It expects to hold between around 640,000 and 690,000 pounds of finished uranium in inventory at the end of 2020.
"At today's spot price for uranium, Energy Fuels expects to hold up to US$23,000,000 of uranium inventory value – or possibly significantly more if uranium prices continue to rise due to the major mine production cuts we're now seeing around the world or other US government- or market-driven factors," Chalmers noted.
"Furthermore, we have 1,600,000 pounds of high-purity finished vanadium product in inventory, which is worth about US$8.5 million at today's spot price. I can think of no other comparable uranium miner anywhere in the world that has the potential to have over US$30 million of inventory value at the end of 2020, and possibly much more if uranium and/or vanadium prices improve."
The company boss said the firm hoped to have more news on its rare earth progress in coming weeks and months.
"There is a lot of interest in rare earths currently, and we believe Energy Fuels is more advanced than any other company in the US on producing a salable rare earth concentrate," he added.
Shares in Energy Fuels advanced 11.16% to stand at C$2.39 each in Toronto.
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