Antinuclear

The collapse of uranium company Paladin’s share price

Why the Paladin Energy Share Price Fell Today What Happened to the Paladin Energy Share Price? Shares of Paladin Energy [ASX:PDN] fell by 3.95% on Wednesday, closing at 36.5 cents. This was the lowest closing price in nearly 10 years of trading! , Money Morning 5 June 14 

Why Did This Happen to the Paladin Energy Share Price?

Paladin Energy Limited is a uranium production and exploration company with projects currently in Australia, Canada, and Africa. The Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia is its flagship project.

Since the Fukushima uranium plant meltdown in 2011, the uranium industry has never been the same. Following this event, the Japanese government turned off all of its 54 uranium power plants.

The uranium spot price is now trading at around US$28.25 per pound, a level not seen since April 2005. Certain estimates now place up to 60% of current annual global production with costs above the current spot price, which is unsustainable.
For years, Paladin experienced financing, production, and profitability issues. And last week it officially temporarily closed its Kayelekera mine in Malawi.

For this plant to restart operations, Paladin wants to see a uranium price between US$70–75 dollars per pound, which implies that the breakeven price for Kayelekera is significantly above the current spot price. Overall the share price is declining because of a poor uranium environment. Last week, Japan announced that it won’t restart any reactors during 2014 — something that uranium punters were betting on.

June 5, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, business, uranium