Paladin Energy raises at least $300m while ASX uranium stocks glow on talk of US shunning Russian supply

Uranium producer Paladin Energy has raked in $300 million to push ahead with building a $1.8 billion mine in Canada over the next six years. The Perth-based miner pulled the trigger on the capital raise just before a statement overnight from a top energy official in the Trump administration gave uranium stocks a shot in the arm on Tuesday morning. Dual-listed Paladin tapped the Australian Securities Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange, with local investors tipping in $231m via a share placement at $7.25 per share — an 8 per cent discount to its previous closing price. A share purchase plan on the same terms as the placement could bring in another $20m on top of the $300m Paladin has locked-in. Proceeds are mainly earmarked for front-end engineering and design work at its PLS project in Canada. Paladin scooped up the project as the crown jewel of its $1.5b takeover of Toronto-listed Fission Uranium last year. Cash will also be poured into Paladin’s flagship Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia, which has been beset by operational issues since its production restart last year. “The funds secured give us balance sheet flexibility to advance the PLS project through to (a) final investment decision while simultaneously completing the ramp-up of operations at the LHM,” Paladin chief executive Paul Hemburrow said. “The equity raising allows our team to steadily progress work in a range of critical areas, including engineering, permitting, early site works and long lead item procurement, in order to keep on track for our targeted first uranium production at the PLS project by 2031. “With the PLS project recently reconfirmed as a world-class uranium development asset that is underpinned by robust technical fundamentals and compelling economics, I believe we are well-positioned to capitalise on the strong outlook for the uranium market in the next decade and beyond.” The uranium market received a boost after US Energy Secretary Chris Wright overnight said the Western World superpower should boost its strategic uranium reserve to buffer against Russian supplies. Russia supplies about a quarter of the enriched uranium needed by America’s network of 94 nuclear reactors, which generate about a fifth of US electricity. “We’re moving to a place — and we’re not there yet — to no longer use Russian enriched uranium,” Mr Wright said. “We hope to see rapid growth in uranium consumption in the US from both large reactors and small modular reactors. “The size of that right buffer would grow with time. We need a lot of domestic uranium and enrichment capacity.” Shares in ASX-listed miners all rose strongly on Tuesday — Boss Energy closed 7 per cent higher, Deep Yellow was up 9.2 per cent, Bannerman Energy soared 11.6 per cent and Lotus Resources added 8.6 per cent.