Boldly, we asked President Jim Ferland for a guarantee that LES-enriched uranium would not be shipped to rogue nations, which may have their own opinions on proliferation issues. He explained, "We certainly will comply with every rule and regulation that's out there. Certainly, we will not sell any of our material to places it's not supposed to go. That includes Iran, Pakistan, North Korea – the list could be very long."
But, he could not guarantee it. Ferland added, "Will our enriched uranium end up outside the United States? Certainly, there is no restriction on that as long as it goes to the right place. For example, the Japanese buy enriched uranium from the U.S."
Energy expert Julian Steyn, who has consulted for numerous countries, including Taiwan, disagreed, "After the enriched uranium leaves New Mexico, it is expected to be totally consumed in the U.S."
The problem with the incoming uranium is that it could conceivably come from any uranium-producing country. Its source and final destination is decided by fuel managers, fuel traders and utilities, who resell or consume the enriched uranium. As Ferland reminded us, "We are simply taking what the utilities deliver to us."
At no time do we suggest Ferland is neither patriotic nor involved in anti-American activities. He explained his position, "If the U.S. utilities can find U.S.-sourced uranium, that makes perfect sense to us. An important element that we add to the nuclear fuel cycle is we are a domestic enricher. The piece that is missing right now, not entirely but almost entirely missing, is U.S. sourced, U.S. mined, uranium. I think the country needs it. I think it would be good for the industry. We would love to take U.S. sourced uranium. If there just was some, it would be great. A very small percentage of the uranium that's mined in the world today comes from the U.S. as I understand it."
Ferland may get his wish. On Monday, SXR Uranium One announced the company had been named as the preferred bidder for Wyoming's Sweetwater Uranium Mill, owned by the U.S. subsidiary of Rio Tinto plc. As part of the acquisition SXR may also purchase the subsidiary's Green Mountain properties in south central Wyoming's Great Divide Basin.
In 1992, one consulting firm confirmed the Jackpot Deposit on these properties might contain more than 57 million pounds of U3O8. With the number of pounds such uranium juniors as Strathmore Minerals, Energy Metals and UR-Energy hope to bring onstream before 2013, Ferland may need to depend less upon non-U.S. uranium than he currently imagines.
