We asked James Dines about his price targets on the spot uranium price. He told us:
$50, $60, anything is possible. If you are running a utility and your choice was getting uranium at any price or having the lights go out, which would you do? This is my way of playing the whole coming energy boom. I think it's the smartest way. This is unique. This metal is just not there. We're just not going to have it.
He talked about Cameco, the world's largest uranium producer:
They control the world's largest high-grade reserves and low-cost operations, a commanding position. They supply around 20 percent of the western world's uranium. It's America's only uranium producer, in Wyoming and Nebraska. Around 20 percent of America's energy is produced by nuclear. That accounts for around 35 percent of the western world's consumption.
We asked about how to play the current bull market in uranium, and he told us:
There is no other way to play it, as far I know of. The utilities buy the stuff so you can't buy the metal. There is no other way. That's why I like the uranium way of playing the energy boom.
What else does he foresee about the current and ongoing energy crisis?
"Some of my other predictions, like the Coming Age of the End of Petroleum – this century is going to see the end of the petroleum age. We're going to use it up. You have China and India coming onstream. You've got the automobile age coming to those two countries. Not even one percent of their citizens own cars yet. With all these cars coming onstream, suddenly everyone is frightened about nailing down their petroleum supplies."
And what does James Dines have to say about the Middle East?
" I don't have to tell you how explosive the Middle East could be. Anything could happen there. A revolution in Saudi Arabia – the most valuable real estate on the planet and it's being gunned after by not just Al Qaedah, but every other big player on the land mass is saying, we need oil. That's where the pool is. As that pool shrinks, it's going to become more and more valuable."
What will happen to the other energy sources, then? He told us:
There will be more of a stampede into other energy sources. You already see it going into coal and natural gas. Unless they're going to start putting windmills on cars, it's over. When it will end, who knows?
Will he guess? Not really. He told us instead:
You hear all kinds of guesses. There were only so many dinosaurs and ferns. It's finite, and it is dirt cheap. People snivel at $1.67 for gasoline, but they pay $10/gallon for Gatorade. White-out is $25/gallon. Evian is $21/gallon. Pepto-Bismol is $123/gallon. People have no concept of how high oil is going to go. Oil is going to go through the roof. A sound energy portfolio should certainly include some oils. But to me, the center of the chessboard is going to be uranium. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Once you start getting sky-high prices for oil, there's no limit to what uranium could do. Even with an accelerated drilling program, it's going to take years to bring it on. And they haven't even started it yet. There's an energy crisis coming of the first magnitude.
