In case you haven’t heard, ground zero of the next massive energy boom is deep in the hinterlands of Canada.
We’re not talking about tar sands in Alberta, which are overly reliant on high prices to sustain production in a market struggling to cope with a supply glut.
We’re talking about an energy story that is truly global in scale, and that is guaranteed to see demand spike for decades to come.
To give you an idea of how big this is, a single company’s reserves contain 16.77 times the energy generation capacity of the Bakken oil fields.
Uranium mining in Canada is on the cusp of explosive growth, and it is going to create a huge windfall in jobs, mergers and acquisitions, and investor profits.
The Nuclear Quandary
Nuclear energy is far safer than any form of fossil fuel. This is true not only for deaths directly related to nuclear accidents, but for the entire global population.
NASA has even weighed in to try and shed light on the quandary we face by nuclear energy opposition.
Back in 2013, it published a report called, “Coal and Gas Are Far More Harmful Than Nuclear Power.”
Using U.S.A. and U.N. information, researchers reached some startling conclusions:
- Nuclear power prevented an average of over 1.8 million net deaths worldwide between 1971-2009.
- Nuclear power prevented an average of 64 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent over the same time period.
The researchers then used projections that cover 2010 through 2050 from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency to determine:
- A full nuclear phase-out scenario leads to an average of 420,000-7 million deaths worldwide.
- Replacing nuclear energy with coal and gas results in an additional release of 80 to 240 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions.
The extra emissions released from fossil fuels from ending nuclear energy generation would account for 16% to 48% of the emissions allowed to stay below conservative targets set by the international community.
The situation is akin to airplane crashes and car crashes. One gets all the headlines, while the other steadily kills far more people.
While people fret about potential nuclear accidents, they are being poisoned by the fallout from fossil fuel toxins and pollution.
This is a massive concern for some of the most energy-hungry parts of the world, and it is going to drive this massive Canadian energy boom for many years to come.
The Safest Path Forward
This “A or B” comparison is hard to internalize for developed nations. We take for granted that power is virtually unlimited.
Plus, the deaths and medical bills from pollution-related asthma, cancers, and other conditions directly tied to the emmisions of coal and gas-fired plants have been with us for generations.
This isn’t the case for central planners in developing nations across South America, Africa, India, and Asia.
They are making choices now based on how much energy they will generate at what cost, as well as the pollution and suffering they will add to already smog-filled megacities.
They’re going to need a whole lot of electricity too. The U.S. Energy Information Agency predicts global electricity consumption will soar 46% by 2040.
For all the stories of the growth of renewables like wind and solar, nuclear power growth is being ignored, in spite of the fact that both renewables and nuclear tie for the fastest growing energy sources at 2.5% per year.
Even this leading-growth rate may be far too conservative, based on recent news.
Big Uranium Deals in the Works
As Jason Simpkins noted on Friday:
There are currently 437 nuclear reactors operating in the world. Another 65 are under construction, and 165 more are planned.
- China is leading the pack with 17 reactors in operation, another 28 under construction, and more than 100 planned. More than $2.4 trillion in funds are going to be spent.
- India plans on going from 5,000 megawatts of nuclear energy now to 63,000 megawatts by 2030, with 30 nuclear plants in the works.
- Russia aims to boost the share of electricity it gets from nuclear power to 25% by 2030, up from 16% now.
- Even Japan is restarting reactors out of necessity.
This burst of activity, coupled with pragmatic recognition of reality, is leading to massive uranium deals.
Argentina just signed a $3 billion deal with Russia-based Rosatom for a sixth power plant and fuel. This comes after a similar construction deal with China in February.
“Nuclear power is growing in prestige in the world, and it is cheaper, cleaner and less subject to external vulnerabilities,” Kirchner said in the statement which was posted on her official website.
Nigeria is in talks with Rosatom as well. As many as four nuclear power plants will be built at a cost of up to $20 billion to meet energy demands and end daily blackouts.
South Africa has an $83 billion deal with Rosatom on the books too.
India is planning 30 plants and just signed a major fuel deal with Cameco for 7.1 million pounds of uranium over five years.
Massive Windfall for Saskatchewan
Cameco is Canada’s biggest uranium producer, and no one is more enthusiastic about this new deal than Saskatchewan’s premier.
“It’ll mean tax revenue, it’ll mean job retention, it’ll mean new jobs, if in fact there is an agreement here with India,” Wall said by telephone. “Depending on all the specifics, you’re going to be talking about hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sales over some period of time.”
This is going to be akin to the massive economic boon that gave North Dakota the best state economy within a matter of years.
And as big as this deal is, it is just the start of an energy export boom from the area.
A glut of exploration and capital investment is going to occur as uranium and nuclear demand ramps up.
A small handful of major companies will be moving to make aggressive acquisitions in the area. The combination of existing infrastructure, extremely high grades, and low cost of extraction drive down all-in costs.
At the same time, uranium ore is very cheap by historical standards, making valuations of resources much lower than they will be in the near future. Demand soaring beyond supply capacity will change that very quickly.
Nick Hodge has been on this trend for months, and has just prepared a selection of some of the strongest uranium plays in the world.
All four of them are Canadian. One of them is the company in Saskatchewan with 16.77 times the electrical generation potential as the entire Bakken.
You can get a jump on the short- and long-term profit potential after checking out his research by subscrining to his Early Advantage newsletter.
