Today’s Sprott’s Thoughts were previously published in the May 2013 issue of Bonner & Partner’s Family Office Strategic Review (www.bonnerfamilyoffice.com).

The Game Changer

“In March 2011, a catastrophic earthquake devastated Japan. Near the quake’s epicenter, a nuclear complex called Fukushima sustained major damage and then took a devastating blow from a tsunami. The consequences were horrific. For only the second time in history (Chernobyl being the first), a major nuclear plant failed. And more importantly, the radiation containment integrity failed – causing widespread damage and global hysteria.”

The natural catastrophe had a major political impact, as the nuclear reactor failure brought back the chilling memory of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Rick states:

“Natural resource speculators know that past uranium bull markets offered some ’explosive’ (pun intended) upside. I have been fortunate enough to experience two uranium bull markets: the 1970s bull market, which saw a tenfold increase in the uranium price and a hundredfold increase in some uranium equities, and the bull market of the last decade, which saw a repeat of the earlier performance.[1] If past is prologue, the stage may be set for a third uranium bull run.

Ross McElroy is the President, COO and Head Geologist for Fission Uranium Corp. (TSX: V.FCU, Stock Forum) - a new uranium explorer recently spun out Fission Energy Corp. The company has a new, major discovery in Canada’s Athabasca Basin as well as a selection of other highly prospective properties in the Athabasca and in the Macusani district of Peru. 

Investment Executive Luke Smith joined Sprott Global Resource Investments Ltd. in 2003. Part of his interest is predicting new developing trends in the junior resource sector. He described to me a change he sees in uranium mining. According to Luke, it could be as important as fracking has become to oil and gas.

This technique, “Surface Access Borehole Resource Extraction,” or SABRE, is a type of uranium mining

JONATHAN BARRETT

Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop has urged the resources industry to try to win public support for the politically sensitive case for nuclear energy.

In the mid-2000s, uranium was the 'new black' as The Bulletin put it and investors could take their pick in this "radioactive heaven". The number of listed uranium juniors doubled, and doubled again ... and again and again.

A company sent radioactive drill samples for assay and quickly became the most traded stock on the ASX (leading to a suspension of share trading). Residents of the small Pacific Island Niue were surprised to learn from an Australian company that they might be sitting on 10 per cent of the world's uranium, and surprised again when the project was abandoned two months later − easy come, easy go. The uranium spot price increased ten-fold and more, peaking at $US138/lb in June 2007.

By MATTHEW L. WALD

Published: April 24, 2013

WASHINGTON

THE first commercial nuclear plant in the United States,commissioned in 1957, was just a scaled-up version of the reactors that powered submarines, and for decades afterward engineers made them bigger and bigger to maximize economies of scale.

But the hot idea now is to think small — small enough to fit a reactor on a railroad car or even a heavy-haul truck.

Such a reactor could be built in a factory,

Negotiations over Hinkley Point C are going too slowly

SIR – At the end of last month, the then Government Chief Scientific Advisor, Professor Sir John Beddington, set out a long-term vision for the critical role of nuclear energy in Britain’s future low-carbon energy mix.

On April 15^th as gold plummeted our portfolio rocketed, allowing us to bank 2 trades with profits of over 100%. One was a Vertical Put Spread on GDX that made us 175% in 4 days, and the other made 135.71% using puts on GDXJ.