your communities. This was a difficult and unprecedented year for all of us, but we are pleased to share with you some very exciting new developments of the company in my presentation that will follow the official business today, and welcome your participation throughout the meeting. We want to thank you for your ongoing patience as we continue to familiarize ourselves with the process of electronic AGMs, which will allow us to come directly to you while keeping everyone safe.
This is David Friedland, CFO, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary of Energy Fuels. This meeting is held in accordance with the Ontario Business Corporations Act, which permits shareholders meetings by electronic means and is deemed to be held in Toronto, Ontario. Please look to your screen at this time for instructions on asking questions, and for those of you who are eligible to vote at the meeting, on casting your votes. Only shareholders and proxy holders who have been provided an 11-digit control number located on the form of proxy you have received are entitled to vote at the meeting. As we have all learned this year, unexpected glitches sometimes occur with electronic platforms. However, our service providers for this platform are very experienced at running virtual AGMs and will provide support throughout this meeting.
To request individualized support, please click on the Support button on your screen or call AST at... I'm gonna give you two numbers. First one is 1-866-751-6315, if within North America, or 1-212-235-5754 if outside of North America.
Thank you, David. The 2021 Annual and Special Meeting of the Shareholders of Energy Fuels will now come to order. To make the best use of our time, certain shareholders have been asked to move and second the resolutions which we will consider and which are set out in the notice of meeting. This will allow more time for voting, as well as any questions and comments later in the meeting. We welcome both shareholders and meeting guests to submit questions as they arise, though we may address them at a later point in the meeting, depending on the subject matter. We will pause periodically throughout the meeting to review any questions directly related to proposals, during which you may experience brief periods of silence.
Subject to any time constraints, general questions relating to the company's business and operations will be addressed after the CEO's presentation, following the meeting. Duplicate or similar questions may be consolidated and paraphrased when read aloud in order to minimize repeat answers. We will conduct the votes on the matters before us by a poll. In this format, every shareholder entitled to vote on that matter, that is, every shareholder or proxy holder who has been provided a 11-digit control number, has one vote in respect of each share entitled to be voted on the matter and held by that shareholder. If you previously voted by proxy, please note that voting in the poll will void your previously cast votes, and any votes submitted here will govern.
We note that the proxies received to date indicate that the company has sufficient votes to pass all matters in accordance with the recommendations of management. The poll will be open for all resolutions at the same time. This will allow you to choose to vote on each resolution immediately, or wait until conclusion of discussion on all resolutions prior to casting your vote on any of the resolutions. Your votes may be changed until voting is closed just prior to the termination of the meeting.
American Stock Transfer and Trust Company, LLC, will act as a virtual scrutineer of this meeting to report on the shareholders present virtually and the number of securities represented virtually and by proxy at this meeting, and any adjournment thereof, to compute the votes cast by proxy and by the poll conducted at this meeting or any adjournment thereof, and to report to me on these matters. The notice of internet availability of proxy materials was mailed to all registered shareholders and was also mailed, or notice was delivered in accordance with the notice and access requirements to all non-registered shareholders in accordance with Rule 14a-16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, rendering the company in compliance with the National Instrument 51-102, subpart 9.1.5, titled Compliance with SEC Notice- and- Access Rules, as well.
The affidavit of mailing has been duly filed, and I direct that the affidavit be attached to the minutes of this meeting as a schedule. If you're entitled to vote at the meeting, you may address the meeting when there is a call to discuss a motion before the meeting. Should a shareholder or proxy holder entitled to vote at the meeting like to address the chair or other speaker on any motion, please type in your question or comment in the Message section provided on your screen. Subject to timing constraints and applicability to the matters being discussed, the secretary or other speaker may read the question aloud and provide a response during the course of the meeting.... As previously noted, duplicate or similar questions may be consolidated and paraphrased when read aloud in order to minimize repeat questions.
A quorum for the transaction of business at a meeting of shareholders is at least two persons present, in this case, virtually, each being a shareholder entitled to vote at the meeting, or a duly appointed proxy holder or representative for an absent shareholder so entitled. I will now ask the secretary to report on attendance at the meeting.
Mr. Chair, we are pleased to report that there are 110 shareholders holding 54,782,994 common shares represented in person or by proxy at this meeting. This represents 38.9% of the 140,816,496 issued and outstanding common shares.
Thank you, Mr. Friedland. I declare that the requisite quorum of shareholders is present, and that the meeting is properly constituted for the transaction of business. I direct that the Final Scrutineer's Report on attendance be annexed to the minutes of the meeting as a schedule. The first item of business is the presentation of financial statements of the company for the year ended December 31st, 2020 , together with the Auditor's Report thereon. Copies of the financial statements have been publicly filed and mailed to all shareholders who requested them. Are there any questions concerning the financial statements?
This is Curtis Moore, Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Development. There are no questions at this time.
Thank you, Mr. Moore. As there are no questions, receipt and presentation of the financial statements for the year ended December 31st, 2020, is hereby acknowledged. The next item of business is the election of directors. It is proposed that eight directors be elected at this meeting. As described in our Management Information Circular, the company has adopted a majority voting policy that provides for individual director voting by the shareholders. Under the policy, if any nominee director receives a greater number of votes withheld than votes for his or her election, he or she will tender his or her resignation for consideration by the Board of Directors following the meeting.
In addition, in 2014, the Board and the shareholders of the company approved an amendment to the company's bylaws, which requires that the shareholders submit a notice of director nominations at least 35 days and not more than 65 days prior to the annual meeting. No notices of nomination were received by the company within the specified time period. May I have a motion to nominate the individuals recommended by the Board of Directors?
This is Mark Chalmers. I nominate for election as directors of the company for the ensuing year, the following eight persons, whose nomination has been authorized by the Board of Directors: J. Birks Bovaird, Mark Chalmers, Benjamin Eshleman III, Barbara Filas, Bruce Hansen, Dennis Higgs, Robert Kirkwood, and Alexander Morrison.
As no other nominations were received by the company in accordance with the advanced notice provisions of the company's bylaws, I now declare the nominations closed. All of the nominees have signified their consent to act as directors of the company. May I have a motion in respect of the election of the nominees as directors?
This is Mark Chalmers. I move that the individuals I have nominated be elected as directors of the company to hold office until the close of the next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are duly elected or appointed.
This is David Friedland. I second the motion.
Thank you, gentlemen. Is there any discussion on this motion?
This is Curtis Moore. There are no questions at this time.
Thank you, Mr. Moore. As there are no questions, I now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. All persons eligible to vote may enter their votes in Lumi at this time, as indicated on your screens. You may cast or change your vote until the poll for all proposals is closed just prior to the termination of this meeting. The next item of business is the appointment of auditors. As discussed in the Management Information Circular, management is proposing that KPMG LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm located in Denver, Colorado, be reappointed as the auditors of the company. I now ask someone to make a motion.
This is Mark Chalmers. I move that KPMG LLP of Denver, Colorado, an independent registered public accounting firm, be appointed as auditors of the company until the next Annual General Meeting of the company at such remuneration as shall be fixed by the Board of Directors.
This is David Friedland. I second the motion.
Thank you. Is there a discussion on this matter?
This is Curtis Moore. There are no questions at this time.
Thank you. As there are no questions, I will now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. All persons eligible to vote may enter their votes in Lumi at this time, as indicated on your screens. You may cast or change your vote until the poll for all proposals is closed just prior to the termination of the meeting. The next item of business is the consideration, and if deemed appropriate, the ratification and approval of the amendment and extension of the company's Omnibus Equity Incentive Compensation Plan for a further three-year term, as described in the Management Information Circular. To be effective, this resolution must be approved by a simple majority of the votes cast. I now ask someone to make a motion.
This is Mark Chalmers. I move that the ordinary resolution of the shareholders of the company, in the form set out in the Management Information Circular, ratifying and approving the company's 2021 Omnibus Equity Incentive Compensation Plan for a further three-year term, and approving all unallocated options, rights, or other entitlements under the plan, as described in the Management Information Circular, be approved.
This is David Friedland. I second the motion.
Thank you. Is there any discussion on this motion?
This is Curtis Moore. There are no questions at this time.
As there are no questions, I now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. All persons eligible to vote may enter their votes in Lumi at this time, as indicated on your screens. You may cast or change your vote until the poll for all proposals is closed just prior to the termination of the meeting. The next item of business is the consideration, and if deemed appropriate, the ratification and approval of the company's shareholder rights plan between the company and American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC, for a three-year term, as described in the Management Information Circular. To be effective, this resolution must be approved by a simple majority of the votes cast. I now ask someone to make a motion.
This is Mark Chalmers. I move that the ordinary resolution of the shareholders of the company, in the form set out in the Management Information Circular, ratifying and approving the company's Shareholder Rights P lan for a three-year term, as described in the Management Information Circular, be approved.
This is David Friedland. I second the motion.
Thank you. Is there any discussion on this motion?
This is Curtis Moore. There are no questions at this time.
As there are no questions, I now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. All persons eligible to vote may enter their votes in Lumi at this time, as indicated on your screen. You may cast or change your vote until the poll for all proposals is closed just prior to the termination of the meeting. The next item of business is the consideration, and if deemed appropriate, the ratification and approval of an amendment to the company's bylaws. I now ask someone to make a motion.
This is Mark Chalmers. I move that the ordinary resolution of the shareholders, the company, in the form set out in the Management Information Circular, ratifying and approving the company's Bylaw Number Three, and repealing Bylaw Number Two, as amended, as described in the Management Information Circular, be approved.
This is David Friedland. I second the motion.
Thank you. Is there any discussion on this motion?
This is Curtis Moore. There are no questions at this time.
Thank you. As there are no questions, I now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. Would all persons entitled to vote, please enter your votes in Lumi at this time. If you've not entered your votes for all of the motions put forward, put forth at the meeting, please do so now. We will pause for about 20 seconds to allow all shareholders to complete their votes before we close the polls. Got another couple seconds. The polls are now closed.
Based on the preliminary Scrutineer's Report, proxies were received from a sufficient number of shares relative to the total number of votes cast at the meeting, such that I declare the following: One, with respect to the election of directors, I declare the motion carried and confirm that all of the nominees have been elected as directors of the company to hold office until the close of the next annual meeting of the shareholders or until their successors are duly elected or appointed. Each of the nominees for director received more votes for than the number of votes withheld, and accordingly, each of the directors has been duly appointed, and none of the directors is required to tender his or her resignation under the majority voting policy.
Number two, with respect to the appointment of KPMG LLP of Denver, Colorado, an independent registered public accounting firm, as auditors of the company until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders at such remuneration as shall be fixed by the Board of Directors, I declare the motion carried. Number three, with respect to the ratification and approval of the company's 2021 Omnibus Equity Incentive Compensation Plan for a further three-year term and approval of all unallocated options, rights, or other entitlements under the plan, I declare the motion carried. Number four, with respect to the ratification and approval of the company's Shareholder Rights Plan with the American Stock Transfer and Trust Company, LLC, for a three-year term, I declare the motion carried. With respect to the ratification and approval of the company's Bylaw Number Three, and a repeal of Bylaw Number Two, as amended, I declare the motion carried.
I hereby direct that a copy of the scrutineer's final voting results be annexed to the minutes of the meeting, that a report on the voting results be filed on SEDAR in accordance with Section 11.3 of the National Instrument 51-102, continuous disclosure obligations, and that a Form 8-K, in accordance with Item 5.07, be filed on EDGAR pursuant to the filing requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. That concludes the scheduled business of this meeting. Is there any business that anyone entitled to vote at this meeting wishes to bring to the attention of the meeting?
This is Curtis Moore. There is no further business to be brought before the meeting.
Thank you, Mr. Moore. As there is no further business, I declare the meeting terminated. The formal part of this Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders is now adjourned. I invite you to stay online for the presentation of the company's activities to be given by Mark Chalmers, the President and CEO of the company.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, everybody, for attending the meeting today. And it's. I'm very excited to give an update on the company. Even though it was a challenging year with COVID, we made huge progress with the company on many fronts, particularly on the rare earth front, as well as improving sentiment for uranium and the critical minerals that we produce at Energy Fuels, and particularly at the White Mesa Mill. Next slide. I may be making some forward-looking statements. Those are included at the back of the presentation. So if you know, they're, they're in the back of the presentation if you want to review those. Next slide.
All right, again, this slide's been around for a while with the company, but I just want to emphasize that our business case is different from anybody else's out there. There is no company really that is a peer of Energy Fuels, because most companies are either 100% focused on uranium, 100% focused on rare earths, or 100% focused on something like vanadium, and our company has all three of those. So uranium, first and foremost, is our core business. That's where we have a long history of successful uranium production, providing carbon-free energy for nuclear power, and it's not going away. Some people have asked me if uranium was going to the wayside, and it absolutely is not.
Number two, rare earths, and this is a very exciting area for us, as many of you are aware of, and it fits perfectly together with our uranium business, and is really the only reason why we can pursue rare earths like we are, and at the speed we're pursuing rare earths. Third, vanadium. Vanadium is also a critical mineral. We were the largest producer of vanadium in 2019. Its main use is for high-strength steel alloys, but it's also getting increased attention on grid-scale batteries for renewable energy systems. Recycling. Recycling has always been a very important part of the business plan for the Energy Fuels assets.
It's the reason the White Mesa Mill still stands today is because of the decade-long, several decade-long history of recycling, mainly uranium, but also vanadium, and I'll talk more about that in the presentation. And lastly, on this slide is our financial strength and zero debt. We continue to have a very strong financial position. We plan to continue to have a very strong financial position, and with our large inventories of produced uranium, not purchased, and produced vanadium, we have in the order of $85 million of cash or working capital. And if you look after the reporting dates, it's probably closer towards $100 million. Next slide.
Environment and social responsibility is becoming an increased emphasis, not just for our company, but companies around the world, and we are very proud of what we do and how we do it. I have to say that when you look at the sustainability report that we published in December. It is amazing what positive contributions that our company can make when it comes to reducing carbon emissions and improving energy efficiency. For those of you that haven't reviewed our sustainability report, I would encourage you to go on our website and read it. It's very powerful. And as I said, I don't know of any company our size that can do more to reduce carbon emissions than Energy Fuels because of the diversity of what we do. Next slide. Again, many of you have seen this footprint.
We have a large footprint from Wyoming all the way down to Texas. We have three fully licensed production centers. Two of them are ISR, that are on standby, and then the White Mesa Mill is the blue star in the Four Corners region of the United States. I wanna remind people that the United States gets 20% of its electricity from nuclear, and that is 55% of the carbon-free electricity from nuclear. And you know, the amazing thing here is that there's this renaissance of the importance and the recognition that nuclear power is part of the solution for reducing carbon emissions going forward, and we're very excited about that. Next slide. This graph really tells a significant story here. It is America's proven uranium producers.
If you look at this graph, and you look back over 15 years, and you look at which companies have produced the largest quantities of uranium over a 15-year period of time, you can see that Cameco has been the largest producer, and it's kind of in that bluish-gray, the 25 million pounds of production over 15 years, followed by Energy Fuels assets, which have produced 16.2 million pounds over 15 years. If you add Cameco's production and Energy Fuels' production together, it is 85% of the uranium produced in the United States over a 15-year period, has been produced by two companies. If you add Ur-Energy, the 2.7 million, and you add Uranium One, the 2.6 million, four companies have produced 97% of the uranium in the United States.
I believe that those that have the proven track records of producing uranium are best positioned to respond to improved uranium markets. Next slide. Over the course of last year, the government has emphasized their support for uranium miners in the nuclear industry. The U.S. Uranium Reserve was appropriated a bipartisan bill for $75 million for 2021, and is expected to be managed by the U.S. Department of Energy. We're still working very closely with the DOE and the government to make sure that that money is, in fact, spent in 2021. But we believe, again, as that last slide emphasized, that the potential for significant support for, and I underline, proven uranium producers with, underlined again, proven assets, are best positioned to receive support from that funding.
In addition, in October, the Russian Suspension Agreement was extended for a further 20 years. The Russian Suspension Agreement had been in place for 20 years, and it limited imports of Russian material to 20%. Now, in the extension, those imports have been reduced to 15%, and so it continues to sort of ramp down or reduce the amount of material that can come in from the Russians with regard to uranium products that have been influencing and reducing prices in the United States of America. And lastly, this is something that's been a very pleasant surprise: the Biden administration is very supportive of nuclear energy and critical minerals.
We were on a call—I was on a call with a number of people in the industry a few weeks ago with the acting, deputy or assistant secretary of nuclear energy, and he said that Secretary Granholm, the Secretary of Energy, is extremely supportive of nuclear energy, and that was very positive feedback. He said, "I would not have relocated from Idaho to Washington, D.C., if it was just lip service." And he says that the Department of Energy, under the new administration, is extremely supportive. So I think that bodes well for the future, not just for Energy Fuels, but also other uranium producers and others in the fuel cycle right on through nuclear power generation. Next slide. All right. Now, I mentioned that there were no peers with Energy Fuels, and this slide kind of proves that.
These are all uranium peers, with the exception of Energy Fuels. We tend to trade in a range with our uranium peers. But when you look at this slide, you can see we're kind of in the middle of the pack, but I wanna emphasize, with zero debt and with uranium inventories that we produce. But when you look at the, you know, that we have current uranium production, we're the only ones on that list that have the ability to produce vanadium. No one can recycle uranium like we do. And lastly, and most importantly, is nobody has the ability to produce rare earths or process rare earths like we do. So this is why I'm saying that we really don't have a peer group that does both the rare earths, uranium, the vanadium, and the recycling.
So we really stand out on our own when it comes to reducing carbon emissions and, improving, energy efficiencies with the activities we have now and looking to the future. Next slide. All right, now I wanna talk about why rare earths and uranium fit together so perfectly. Now look at the little, that little, plate on the far right that shows some of the mixed rare earth carbonates, produced at the White Mesa Mill. So that's what the rare earth carbonates actually looks like, kind of a yellowish flower or a, a whitish flower. We are currently ramping up production of, rare earth, carbonate at the mill right now, and it's a high-value mineral that we are processing from monazite sands, which is the sources of the rare earths and uranium that we're securing from a company in Georgia, from Chemours.
We believe that our value proposition is extraordinary because we're focused on some of the highest value rare earth minerals. The monazite sands, which contain material quantities, uranium, and other radionuclides that require special licenses and permitted capabilities. And White Mesa, Energy Fuels' White Mesa has all those licenses and capabilities. So this is an extraordinary opportunity for the company and our shareholders to capitalize on the significant, fully permitted, fully licensed, and constructed, and debt-free facilities that our company has. Now, most of you are somewhat familiar with what the rare earths are. There are 17 naturally occurring elements, and they are the building blocks for numerous clean energy and advanced technologies. I think everybody's been hearing about the excitement surrounding electric vehicles, wind energy, batteries, cell phones, computers.
I mean, even Joe Biden driving around in an F-150 pickup truck that has 500+ horsepower and goes from 0 to 60 in, like, four seconds. And I also saw just, I think yesterday, that they have orders for 20,000 of those pickups. So this whole EV revolution is happening so quickly that it is staggering. It is staggering. And if you look at a number of the forecasts for increases in demand in the magnet rare earth oxides, they're talking about a fivefold increase in the next 10 years. That is staggering, and we are in a perfect position to capitalize on that with our activities as a company and at White Mesa. And we believe that White Mesa, an existing facility, can restore U.S. rare earth supply chains to North America and Europe. Next slide. So why monazite?
Well, I already touched on some of the things. It's the most valuable rare earth mineral out there, and it's currently being produced at existing mines, not just in the United States, but around the world. It's produced in the US, Australia, Brazil, Africa, and elsewhere. It's generally a byproduct from heavy mineral sand operations that are focused on zirconium and titanium, and it is a byproduct, which means that in most cases, it is at low cost and is secondary to the primary economics, which is the zirconium and titanium. It also contains uranium and radionuclides, which I mentioned we can handle at the White Mesa Mill. The material that we're currently processing at White Mesa is also extremely high grade.
It is between 53% and 55% total rare earth oxides, and it contains about 0.2% uranium, which is about the same grade as what we would mine normally at the mines that surround the White Mesa Mill. Some of the monazite in places like Australia can be 60%+ in total rare earths. I use an analogy. This is like the McArthur River and the Cigar Lake of the uranium business and the rare earth business, and that is why we're focused on it. It also has superior distributions of the magnet elements, NdPr, the Neodymium-P raseodymium, and also substantial grades and contents of the heavy rare earths, which are also very valuable. And when you compare it to bastnäsite ores, it is substantially higher grades in the NdPr and meaningful greater than... well, the heavies.
The heavies are a lot lower grade in the bastnäsite materials. The focus on the monazite is really a key portion of our plan, and as I said, it's currently mined in the U.S. and globally, and that is one of the reasons we are able to get off to such a quick start, is because we are able to secure our arrangement with Chemours in Georgia. Next slide. Here's just a picture of the White Mesa Mill, and many people in the industry have said that they believe that White Mesa is the missing link in the U.S. rare earth supply chain. We believe that that is becoming more true by the day... I mentioned that we have the licenses and the permits, and we're currently processing the rare earth carbonate.
We have a long history going back over 40 years of responsibly producing uranium-bearing feeds. The only minor upgrades were required to process the monazite at the mill. In total, about $2 million of capital was required. And so we also plan to recover and are going to recover and monetize uranium, which is a nice by-product to the rare earths. We have ample processing capacity. Our initial goal after this, processing this material from Chemours this year, is 15,000 tons of monazite per year as our next step, and that represents less than a couple% of the mill's annual licensed throughput capacity for uranium ores, and less than 1% of our tailings facilities, which incidentally are designed for 1,000 years and are state-of-the-art.
So a little bit of monazite goes a long way. For example, when we get up to, assuming we secure adequate feeds, 15,000 tons of monazite sands, that represents about 50% of U.S. current rare earth demand. And so, you know, we can do an awful lot with very small amounts of monazite sands. There is absolutely no reason, if we can secure enough monazite sand feeds or other rare earth feeds, that the White Mesa Mill can--could be processing in excess of 100% of the rare earth elements that the United States currently requires. Next slide. Okay, now this is--we're moving at rocket speed here with how we've launched into the rare earth supply chains.
The first dot point showing the short-term business plan, which is now, that is in 2021, where we've established both the US and European supply chain. I mentioned Chemours. We have initial purchase agreements for three years of a minimum of 2,500 tons of monazite per year, and that is currently being produced at their facility in Georgia. It's already been shipped, or at least the first portion has been shipped to the mill.
We're seeking to purchase additional monazite supply, both in the United States, but also around the world, and there are many people that have shown up or called us, and we're talking to I believe all the significant monazite producers in the entire world because they now know there's an alternative to China when it comes to monazite processing, and it is White Mesa Mill. So at this point in time, we've got a back-to-back agreement where monazite carbonate that we produce at the White Mesa Mill will be shipped to Neo Performance Materials in Europe.
The reason it has to go to Europe is because there is no separation facilities in the United States, and we are very pleased with our relationship with Neo and being able to do the separation in Europe because it establishes integration in a very clever way. Now, looking out two or three years, we are very, very focused on U.S.-centric supply chain, and it is our plan to develop full integration, including separation and other value-added steps, perhaps through metals and alloys at the White Mesa Mill. And the United States is hungry for that capability, and we are ready to provide it to the, you know, to the United States, to Canada, and to Europe. So we believe that we have to have full integration to capture the value chain.
We have recently announced that we have a collaboration with Carester in France, who has extensive experience recovering and separating rare earths from monazite in both France and China, using, focusing on solvent extraction, which the White Mesa Mill is a solvent extraction facility, so we're very comfortable with solvent extraction. And as I said, we have a 40-year history, and are very comfortable with solvent extraction. A number of our people that work at the mill don't know anything else but solvent extraction because that's what they've been using for decades. So we're very excited about how our skill sets fit with the next steps, which are separation. Next slide. So this is just a graphic that basically highlights what I just told you.
So you can see where we are now with the full integration through the bolting together of the relationships and agreements with Chemours, White Mesa Mill, and Neo. We're working very diligently to build that out, to move to this midterm, this 2023, 2024, for full integration. And we cannot be more excited about moving in that direction at the speed that we're moving it at. And I think we're surprising not just people in North America, but people around the world on how focused we are at getting to integration and the speed that we're moving. And Southeast Utah has the potential to become America's clean energy and critical mineral hub, and we're very excited about that as well.
What a better place than Utah and San Juan County, where we can provide more jobs, more economic development, and employment for indigenous people and the people in Blanding, Monticello, and the surrounding communities. So this is a great win, great story for everybody who's involved. Next slide. So this is kind of a busy slide. It's fairly new. We've had it for a few weeks, but this just kind of shows what we've accomplished in just a little over 12 months on the rare earth front. You can see that we've engaged a number of the leading rare earth industry professionals in the rare earth business from the world, Constantine Karayannopoulos.
Many of you will know Constantine Karayannopoulos, Brock O'Kelley, who worked at Mountain Pass for 35 years, Jack Lifton, and also Carester in France are looking at the other steps of separation at the mill. When you look at from the monazite sand sources, and we have the existing agreement with Chemours, we signed a MOU with Hyperion, which got a very exciting project in Tennessee. There are other companies we're talking to, both in the United States and around the world, because, as I mentioned earlier, they now understand that there is another opportunity for processing monazite sands outside of China, and it is Energy Fuels. And we are also looking at direct purchases of monazite sands globally. I mentioned we're ramping up the production of the carbonate. That's happening. I mentioned how cost effective that was.
With about $2 million of upgrade, we basically built a crack and leach facility that probably would have cost $300 million-$400 million, otherwise. We have the long history that I mentioned, the expertise on site to do this, and we're getting support from Neo and the Colorado School of Mines. Separation is the next focus for the company in addition to securing feed. I mentioned Carester, I mentioned Neo, and I mentioned our experience, but we're also working with a number of the national labs from the Department of Energy. We are on, after separation, focusing on the rare earth metals and alloy step, which is also a value add. Then lastly, we have received additional government support.
We're kind of late to the game, but we've received additional support from the Department of Energy on also, some special projects related to, rare earth processing of, feeds from coal-based resources. So we're definitely on the radar screen with the Department of Energy, and we look, forward to perhaps some additional involvement with the Department of Energy and the government, but we are not operating the company dependent on government support. We believe that our focus and our strategy is sustainable in this market without government support.
So that is very exciting, and we believe it will be one of the lowest, if not the lowest, outside of China and perhaps competitive with China because of the advantages we have with our capital strike rate, our operating strike rate, and the grades of the material that we plan to process at White Mesa Mill. Next slide. So this is just sort of a snapshot of the rare earth producers, and I just wanna highlight that when you look at the value of the mineral feed, you can see the values of monazite stand out significantly. The material from Chemours has a basket value, recovered basket value of nearly $18,000 per ton. When you look at the basket values of some of the bastnäsite deposits, you can see it is substantially less.
Now, Energy Fuels currently has a market cap of in between that $800 million-$900 million, but we are extremely focused on catching up to the likes of Iluka, Lynas, and MP, that have market caps of multiples of billions of dollars. So watch this space because we're very excited that our plan puts us in a great position to really get a lot of investor attention, not just from investors, but end users, that we're able to move up this chain quicker, faster than anybody on that list, I believe, if we can execute our business plan as we are currently going forward. Next slide. So look, just a little bit on vanadium. It still is an important part of the company's business plan.
It's not our main focus, but vanadium is starting to get additional attention as a critical mineral. The White Mesa Mill, as I said, was the largest producer of vanadium in 2019. We have significant inventories, nearly 1.7 million pounds of inventory at site. The price of vanadium has gone up substantially in the last several months. And we have the ability to go back into vanadium production quite quickly. So, you know, again, when the price of vanadium goes up to adequate levels, we'll look at either divesting some of our vanadium inventories or going back into vanadium production as well. Next slide. This is just showing our financial strength and flexibility as we go forward.
As I mentioned, we've got a very strong cash security and inventory position. Large inventories of, produced by us, uranium and vanadium. If you look at our working capital values we're carrying, that's valuing uranium at $24.46 a pound on the books and vanadium at $5.11. The price of uranium and vanadium is substantially higher right now, so we're actually being fairly conservative at current market prices. So, you know, certainly, we've had... And look at the whole sector, when you look at the rare earth producers, the uranium producers, it's been a very exciting period of renewed interest on critical minerals and uranium in the past six months or so. Next slide.
So this is my last slide, and in conclusion, I just wanna say that Energy Fuels has no peer group because of what we do and how we do things, and the diversification we have. We have unmatched ability to increase our uranium production. We have more production facilities, more capacity, we've got more expertise than any other U.S. uranium company, and we're gaining huge amounts of knowledge on the rare earth front as we're executing our rare earth plans. Our focus on the rare earth carbonate with the monazite sand feeds, again, I think is the best opportunity I've seen in my entire career. Our initial focus is to produce about 10% of current U.S. demand that we're producing right now from the material we're sourcing from Chemours.
The U.S. uranium reserve and the extension of the Russian Suspension Agreement have positive... Will have a positive impact on the uranium business going forward, and the government support for critical minerals. The recycling, the cleanup programs, we're very excited about that. We're very well-positioned financially and have zero debt, and the vanadium space and capabilities is in the waiting for the right market conditions. So in closing, I just wanna say that I couldn't be more excited, and I don't think the team could be any more excited on the opportunities that are in front of us, and that the best days for this company and the White Mesa Mill, hopefully, are ahead of us. And we are looking at some- doing some big things. We still got a lot of work to do. We still got to secure feed.
We still gotta move forward with integration, but that's what our focus is, and I hope to be reporting back to you next year with even more exciting news than I am today. Thank you, and I'm available for questions.
This is Curtis Moore. There are no further questions at this time, Mark.
Okay, well, I'll just say that if there's any questions, go ahead and ask them now, because we're here, ready, and happy to answer them if you have a question. All right. If there's no further questions, I'd say that this concludes our 2021 Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders. We thank those of you that have attended, and look forward to, you know, the developments over the course of the next year. And again, stay safe, stay well, and, you know, again, very excited about what lies ahead, and we'll do everything possible, everything possible to create value for our shareholders. And at the same time, let's have some fun, and let's do some great things. Thank you very much.