Our Strategy
Our strategy remains focused on taking advantage of the long-term growth we see coming in our industry, while maintaining the ability to respond to market conditions as they evolve. As a result of the longer-than-anticipated market uncertainty, we are adjusting our plans in line with this focus.
Market challenges have persisted since early 2011, and we expect they will continue for the near to medium term, depending on:
- the pace of Japanese reactor restarts
- how long it takes for excess supply to clear the market
- when long-term contracting resumes in meaningful quantities
- the development and execution of new uranium supply projects
- continued performance of existing supply
In this environment, a fixed production target is no longer appropriate; although we still have an extensive portfolio of assets from which we can increase our production capacity, we have decided the prudent action is to eliminate our previous 2018 supply target of 36 million pounds. This will allow us increased flexibility in order to deliver the best value through this period of uncertainty, while at the same time retaining the ability to benefit when more certainty returns to the market environment, as we expect it will. Today, our strategy is to profitably produce at a pace aligned with market signals to increase long-term shareholder value.
We plan to:
- carry out all of our business with a focus on safety, people and the environment
- ensure continued reliable, low-cost production from our flagship operation, McArthur River/Key Lake and seek to expand that production
- ensure continued reliable, low-cost production at Inkai
- successfully bring on and ramp up production at Cigar Lake
- manage the rest of our production facilities and potential sources of supply in a manner that retains the flexibility to respond to market signals and take advantage of value adding opportunities within our own portfolio and the uranium market
- manage and allocate capital in a way that balances growing the long-term value of the business and returns to shareholders, while maintaining a strong balance sheet and our investment grade rating