Laramide put in a great day on Friday gaining 6.14% and positioning itself for a run at its own previous highs.

On 31st March when this uranium stock was at $16.00 we thought that it looked a little over bought and warned of a possible correction which occurred sending the stock down $3.00 to the $13.00 level. However once it touched the 50 Day Moving Average it bounced right back to close on Friday at $15.39. This stock is showing tremendous strength to come back so quickly.

A press release on the 17th April 2007 may have had something to do it. We are referring to the scoping study carried out by GRD Minproc on the Westmoreland Uranium Project located in North West Queensland, Australia. The study says that this property is capable of producing 3 million pounds of U3O8 per annum with an attractive cash cost profile using open cut technology. Production costs have been estimated for a pound of U3O8 averaging US$ 19.02 for the first 6 years of the mine life and from year 7 onwards, increasing to US$ 25.17 per pound for the mining of the smaller deposits. So if the spot price stays above the $100/lb then we are looking at around $80.00/lb profit. If we are allowed to dream and our long-standing prediction of $200.00/lb were to be realised then we are talking of $180.00/lb profit: the mind boggles. (3 million pounds multiplied by $180 equals $540 million profit per annum)

But this is Queensland and a possible spanner in the works is the state government and their Premier Mr Peter Beattie. I spent 6 years working ‘down under’ and in my experience the head office of any political party sitting in Canberra is not as powerful as the more centralised governments of other countries. It is a state-by-state decision, whether or not to expand uranium mining, which we will monitor with great interest and some trepidation.