Uranium Energy Corp has commenced production at its Burke Hollow in situ recovery project in south Texas, the first new US ISR uranium operation to start in more than a decade. The company received approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality before beginning wellfield operations.
Burke Hollow is the largest ISR uranium discovery made in the United States in the past ten years. The deposit holds an estimated 6,155,000 pounds of U3O8 in the measured and indicated categories, roughly 2,368 tonnes of contained uranium, with an additional 4,883,000 pounds classified as inferred. Uranium bearing solution from the wellfield moves to the company's Hobson Central Processing Plant, which is licensed to produce up to four million pounds of uranium annually.
The restart of domestic ISR capacity carries weight for US fuel supply. Utilities have been rebuilding contract books after years of relying on imported material, and federal programs have pushed to expand domestic enrichment and conversion alongside mining. Uranium Energy has a second ISR project at Ludeman planned for startup in 2027.
Silver has drawn most of the precious metals attention this month. Spot prices touched 70 dollars an ounce on August 21 before easing to about 69 dollars, a monthly gain near 20 percent, and mining equities followed the move higher. Analyst year end and peak targets for silver now range from roughly 67 to 118 dollars an ounce, with several institutions modeling triple digit prices. Uranium producers have tracked a separate demand curve driven by reactor construction and data center power contracts.
Source: Mining Technology - https://www.mining-technology.com/news/uec-begins-production-burke-hollow-project/