It’s hard to envision the world getting all its electricity from renewable assets (solar, wind, geothermal, possibly hydro depending on how you classify it) any time soon. Sure Swanson’s Law and Moore’s Law would suggest that the cost-effectiveness and technology behind solar cells is improving at a very rapid pace but the reality is, we aren’t getting even close to our climate targets and reducing or possibly even eliminating the burning of fossil fuels for electricity unless we include nuclear power in the mix. There certainly seems to be ebb and flow around the perception of nuclear power as a green alternative. Nevertheless, it is a very efficient source of electricity that has a very low carbon footprint. In fact, it produces zero carbon emissions in the electricity generation process, but mining and refining uranium ore and making reactor fuel all require energy.
I’m a firm believer that nuclear power should be part of the asset mix going forward and I’m not alone. At present, about 10% of the world’s electricity is generated from uranium in nuclear reactors. This amounts to over 2,550 TWh each year, coming from over 440 nuclear reactors operating in 30 countries. About 50 more reactors are under construction and over 100 are planned. Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine all get 30% or more of their electricity from nuclear reactors while France is over 70%. You also may be surprised to learn that the USA has just under 100 reactors operating, supplying 20% of its electricity.
This may sound pretty bullish for uranium but the reality is, post Fukushima (March 2011) there was a pretty noticeable (and negative) response on the demand side and it’s only been in the last couple of years that the overall supply/demand balance for uranium has come back into balance. In fact, it is slowly but surely creeping towards a reasonable supply deficit. You can almost see it happening on the spot uranium price chart below.
Source: TradingEconomics.com
So where am I going with all of this? I hope you’re thinking of uranium as an investment opportunity or I’m not doing a very good job. And where better to look for a uranium opportunity than a team that has already succeeded twice in finding uranium in one of the most prolific uranium districts in the world, the Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan. Fission 3.0 Corp. (TSXV: FUU | OTCQB: FISOF) is the third generation Fission run by one of Canada’s leading uranium exploration teams. The Company’s management, headed up by Dev Randhawa as CEO & Chairman and Ross McElroy, is the team that founded Fission Uranium Corp. (TSX: FCU | OTCQX: FCUUF) and made the Patterson Lake South high-grade discovery. The same team also founded Fission Energy Corp., making the J-Zone high-grade discovery in the Athabasca Basin and building Fission into a TSX Venture 50 Company that sold the majority of its assets to Denison Mines in April 2013.
Granted Ross McElroy stepped down as COO of the Company in February to focus on the development of the Triple R deposit at Patterson Lake South owned by Fission Uranium. Mr. McElroy will remain on Fission 3.0’s Board of Directors, remain as the Company’s qualified person and he was still part of the technical team that built Fission 3.0’s portfolio of properties in Canada’s Athabasca Basin. And Fission 3.0 has plenty of them, 14 in total including 3 properties that basically surround the Triple R deposit.
Source: Fission 3.0 Corporate Presentation
Fission 3.0 used staking strategies and historic uranium discoveries in identifying claims in the Athabasca Basin. The Company has large tracts of land in close proximity to other major uranium discoveries. These properties were staked based on the innovative airborne technology that was used in discovering the uranium boulder field which lead to the PLS Triple R deposit.
Fission 3.0 engages in early-stage land acquisitions and is a “Project Generator”. The Company’s primary objective is to locate, evaluate and acquire properties with the potential to host high-grade uranium and to finance exploration and potential development by way of equity financing, joint ventures, option agreements or other means. In June Fission 3.0 raised $1.2 million for future exploration work, or elephant hunting if you will. With a market cap of just under $23 million there is a lot of leverage to the upside if this team is able to unearth another Triple R type of project (Fission Uranium has a current market cap of almost $395 million). Time will tell if their innovative airborne technology is the secret sauce for attracting those elephants.
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