Energy Fuels rounds out 2020 with robust balance sheet as it pays off all debts and has $40.2M in working capital

Energy Fuels Inc (NYSEAMERICAN:UUUU) (TSE:EFR) (FRA:VO51) posted 2020 financial results on Monday that saw a robust balance sheet and strong working capital of $40.2 million.  For the year ended 31 December 2020, the Lakewood, Colorado-based uranium mining company, set down working capital of $40.2 million, a $19.7 million increase over the company's $20.5 million working capital at the end of December 2019. The $40.2 million included $22.4 million of cash and marketable securities, and $27.6 million of inventory, including nearly 690,700 pounds of uranium valued at $23.79 per pound, and 1,672,000 pounds of high-purity vanadium valued at $5.11 per pound.  For the year, uranium production totaled around 196,500 pounds of U3O8, the most stable form of uranium oxide, and vanadium production totaled roughly 67,000 pounds of V2O5, or vanadium oxide, extensively used as a catalyst in many industrial chemical reactions. READ: Energy Fuels says first shipments of natural monazite ore arrived at its White Mesa Mill in Utah Due to its recent share price strength, Energy Fuels raised $30.4 million on its at-the-market equity program between January 1, 2021 and March 18, at a weighted average price of $5.53 per share, bolstering the company's financial position. On October 6, 2020, the company revealed it was debt-free, following the full retirement of all of its floating rate convertible unsecured subordinated debentures. In a statement, Energy Fuels CEO Mark S Chalmers hailed 2020 as a “transformative year” as the company worked on developing a rare earth element (REE) business complementary to its core uranium business. “As a result, we believe we have clearly emerged as the key US hub for the raw materials that make many clean energy and advanced technologies possible, including uranium, rare earths and vanadium, all of which are considered 'critical minerals' by the US government,” said Chalmers. "Starting with our core business, Energy Fuels continues to be the leader in US uranium, as we again led the US in uranium production for the fourth year in a row. Although we are maintaining production at reduced levels for now, our three production facilities in Utah, Wyoming and Texas have a combined capacity to produce more uranium than any other US company.” He noted that the company can “quickly deploy this capacity” toward higher demand or US government purchases for the national Uranium Reserve. “We were pleased to see the US government recognize the strategic importance of our industry when Congress appropriated $75 million for the creation of the proposed Uranium Reserve. We believe our facilities are natural candidates to receive a significant portion of this money, as they have long track records of proven, low-cost production from our multiple projects,” pointed out Chalmers. On April 13, 2020, the company entered the REE business. In six months, it had produced on a pilot-scale, an intermediate REE product (mixed REE carbonate) from natural REE- and uranium-bearing monazite sands at its White Mesa Mill. Significant quantities of monazite are currently mined as a by-product of heavy mineral sand operations that primarily recover zircon and titanium in the US and elsewhere in the world. In December last year, the company said that it was entering “commercial production of mixed REE carbonate in 2021” following the completion of an agreement on December 14, 2020, to purchase a minimum of 2,500 tons of monazite per year for three years from a facility located in Georgia owned by the Chemours Company (NYSE:CC) (FRA:2CU). “In 2020, we also began working with Chemours and Neo to jointly develop a fully integrated US-European rare earth supply chain using monazite mined in Georgia by Chemours, processed in Utah by Energy Fuels for the recovery of uranium and an REE carbonate, with the REE carbonate then manufactured by Neo into value-added rare earth products in Europe,” said Chalmers. “In December 2020, we entered into a three-year supply agreement with Chemours for monazite. And this month, we entered into an agreement in principle, subject to completion of definitive agreements, to sell our mixed rare earth carbonate to Neo, thereby achieving our objective of creating this fully-integrated rare earth supply chain.” Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive