Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Uranium Energy Corp's fiscal 2025 fourth quarter and year-end results conference call. Today's call will be hosted by Amir Adnani, President and CEO. Also joining for the Q&A session of today's call are Josephine Mann, Chief Financial Officer, Scott Melbye, Executive Vice President, and Brent Berg, Senior Vice President, U.S. Operations. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star and then one on your telephone keypads. To withdraw your questions, you may press star and two. Please also note today's event is being recorded. Today's call will run approximately 15 minutes for prepared remarks followed by Q&A.
Please limit yourselves to one question and one follow-up so we can get to as many as possible. At this time, I'd like to turn the floor over to Amir Adnani, President and CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. For those not currently on the webcast, a presentation accompanying this conference call is available on the presentations page of our website. Some of the commentary on today's call will include forward-looking statements, and I would direct everyone to review slide two of the presentation, which includes important cautionary notes. All right, here we go. Fiscal 2025 was a breakthrough year as we delivered initial low-cost production in Wyoming with approximately 130,000 pounds at a total cost of $36 per pound. We are now firmly in ramp-up mode with new header houses at Christensen Ranch online and Brook Hollow 90% complete, which will be America's next ISR mine. At the same time, we achieved substantial scale through the accretive acquisition of Rio Tinto Sweetwater Complex, establishing our third U.S.
hub-and-spoke platform and expanding licensed capacity to 12.1 million pounds annually, making UEC the largest U.S. uranium company by estimated resources and total licensed production capacity. Our balance sheet remains strong with $321 million in cash, inventory, and equities, and no debt. We have a 100% unhedged strategy to capture upside as prices rise. With the launch of URNC, we are moving to become America's only vertically integrated uranium company, expanding downstream into refining and conversion. Moving to our financial highlights on slide four, we're encouraged by the strong position we find ourselves in today. As of July 31, 2025, UEC maintained a robust balance sheet with $321 million in cash, inventory, and equities based on market values and no debt.
Our sales strategy for the first half of fiscal 2025 resulted in $68.8 million in revenue and $24.5 million in gross profit from the sales of 810,000 pounds of U3O8 from our physical inventory at an average price above $82.50 per pound. In the second half of fiscal 2025, we have focused on building our inventory. We have 1,356,000 pounds of U3O8 held in inventory, valued at $96.6 million at the uranium market price of $71.25 as at July 31, 2025. This inventory does not include the approximately 130,000 pounds of initial Wyoming production earlier discussed. Our 100% unhedged strategy maximizes our exposure to rising uranium prices, and we're committed to building strategic inventory to supply the U.S. strategic uranium reserve and other government programs and global market demand. Our financial flexibility, combined with our low-cost ISR operations, allows us to scale production in step with market and policy signals.
The strong uranium price environment, driven by global demand for nuclear energy and U.S. policy support, positions us to capitalize on these opportunities. Now, moving to slide five and zooming out, the last several years of over $1 billion in accretive acquisitions have built UEC into an enviable position with global resources of over 230 million pounds in the measured and indicated categories and a further 100 million pounds in the inferred category. This does not include the Sweetwater Complex. Furthermore, we boast the largest licensed production capacity in the U.S. with 12.1 million pounds per year across our plants. In our portfolio, we're focused on our four key pillars of production growth: Eri-Gary Central Processing Plant, or CPP in Wyoming, Hobson CPP in Texas, Sweetwater CPP, and the Roughrider Project in Canada. We're actively advancing each of these growth pillars, which we'll speak about in further detail shortly.
Following a string of bear market acquisitions near cycle lows, we were able to establish UEC as the largest U.S. uranium company. This unparalleled scale is what has allowed us to identify the market need and opportunity for a single American company with scale and vertical integration, which means further growth into refining and conversion services. The launch of URNC is designed to position UEC as the only U.S. company moving toward end-to-end capabilities in uranium mining, processing, refining, and conversion for delivery of natural UF6 to enrichment plants for LEU and HALU production. The timing couldn't be better as U.S. nuclear policy is undergoing a seismic shift. President Trump's executive orders to quadruple nuclear energy, combined with Energy Secretary Chris Wright's call to eliminate reliance on Russian uranium supplies, have created unprecedented tailwinds for reshoring the U.S. nuclear fuel cycle.
The planned facility would be a centerpiece of this effort, ensuring a secure domestic supply chain for nuclear fuel. We're moving this project forward in stages, subject to contingencies, and look forward to providing updates as it progresses. Moving to slide eight, we will start with the Eri-Gary hub as we provide a bit more detail on the ongoing initiative at our four production pillars. A key driver of our Wyoming production growth was the commissioning of two new ISR mine units at Christensen Ranch, header houses 10-7 and 10-8. We've also made significant progress on wellfield development with active well installation in wellfield 11, delineation drilling completed in wellfield 12, and extensions planned in wellfields 8 and 10. Construction of four additional header houses in wellfield 11 is underway, with power poles placed and buildings being set on their foundations.
These efforts will form the backbone of our future production plans. As a result of this ramp-up, our Wyoming workforce has grown to 73 personnel, reflecting the scale of our operations in the Powder River Basin. Turning to South Texas, our Brook Hollow project is on track to become America's next ISR mine. Construction is 90% complete, with a target completion date of November 2025. We're positioning for operational startup in December. This project represents a critical component of our South Texas hub-and-spoke production platform, which leverages our Hobson CPP. At Brook Hollow, we've made significant progress on the ion exchange facility and the first production area known as PAA-1. Key milestones include the completion of injection and recovery wells, the installation and loading of ion exchange columns with resin, and the drilling of a deep disposal well.
The high-density polyethylene trunk line connecting the satellite facility to PAA-1 has been fused, pressure-tested, and connected to the plant. Concurrently, three-phase power is being advanced to the site, and equipment installation continues on schedule. With these advancements, our South Texas workforce has grown to 56 personnel supporting our broader regional operations. Moving back to Wyoming to focus on our newest asset, Sweetwater. As I mentioned previously, one of the most transformative events of fiscal 2025 was our $175 million acquisition of Rio Tinto Sweetwater Plant and Wyoming Uranium Assets, which established UEC's third U.S. hub-and-spoke production platform. This transaction added the Sweetwater Plant, a conventional mill, one of only three in the U.S., with the project having approximately 175 million pounds of historic resources.
The Sweetwater Plant, with a licensed capacity of 4.1 million pounds of U3O8 per year, is a 3,000-ton per day mill that we plan to adapt for processing loaded ion exchange resins from ISR operations, unlocking significant synergies with our existing Wyoming assets. On August 1, 2025, the Sweetwater Complex was designated as a FAST 41 transparency project by the U.S. Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, following President Trump's executive order to increase American mineral production. This designation expedites ISR permitting for deposits on federal lands. Coming alongside the federal government, the Wyoming State Government has agreed to match the permitting timelines enabled through the FAST 41 program. With regards to project advancement at Sweetwater, we've initiated a new drilling program to define future ISR wellfield areas, and we subsequently aim to publish a technical report summary to incorporate these results, ensuring a comprehensive resource estimate.
Now moving to slide 11 to discuss Roughrider in more detail. In 2024, we drilled metallurgical holes across the west, east, and far east zones, collecting core to confirm metallurgical testing. Since January 2025, we have conducted bulk solvent extraction, yellowcake precipitation, tailings neutralization, and effluent treatment tests. These results will assist in completing our planned pre-feasibility study, for which we've issued requests for proposals to engage qualified firms. The PFS will be a critical step in advancing Roughrider toward development. Before I close out on our 2025 fiscal year results, I wanted to provide a brief overview of the current uranium market backdrop. As many of you know, we are entering into a supply squeeze where we have seen significant underinvestment into uranium mines over the last decade.
Growing demand, coupled with this underinvestment, has led to a structural supply deficit that is projected to continue and widen, reaching a cumulative deficit of 1.7 billion pounds by 2045. In the U.S., we have seen unprecedented and bipartisan support for nuclear energy to combat this supply squeeze. Under the Trump administration, U.S. policy has shifted decisively toward restoring and expanding the domestic nuclear fuel cycle as part of a broader strategy to bolster energy independence, resilience, dominance, and national security. A key goal is to avoid reliance on foreign uranium, conversion, and enrichment services while supporting critical infrastructure, including artificial intelligence and military needs. President Trump has set an ambitious target to quadruple U.S. nuclear energy capacity by 2050, surpassing the World Nuclear Association's triple-angle, and to advance roughly 10 new large-scale reactors by 2030. To strengthen the fuel cycle, the U.S.
administration is invoking the Defense Production Act to enter voluntary agreements with domestic companies for enriched uranium and is considering federal offtake commitments to create secure markets for newly expanded or built facilities. At the same time, regulatory and institutional reforms aim to accelerate licensing, fast-track projects, enable advanced reactor deployment, and reduce dependence on foreign nuclear fuel sources. In summary, we have never seen a more positive policy environment for our industry. Amid this favorable policy backdrop, major technology companies are increasingly turning to nuclear energy as a reliable carbon-free power source to meet the soaring electricity demands of AI and large-scale data centers. This growing interest underscores nuclear's emerging role as a cornerstone of the U.S. digital infrastructure strategy. This includes major investments into nuclear energy from every hyperscaler, the latest being Nvidia's investment into TerraPower in Wyoming to support the Natrium reactor.
We're now witnessing an unprecedented flow of private capital into nuclear projects, from hyperscaler power purchase agreements to advanced reactor investments, reinforcing the critical need for U.S. origin uranium and conversion capacity. To wrap up, fiscal 2025 was a year of execution and transformation for UEC. We achieved initial production in Wyoming, advanced Brook Hollow to near completion, and expanded our U.S. platform through the Sweetwater acquisition. The launch of URNC is designed to position us as a leader in the U.S. nuclear fuel cycle, and our strong balance sheet provides the flexibility to execute on our growth strategy. With unprecedented policy support and a tightening uranium market, we feel UEC is uniquely positioned to meet the growing demand for secure domestic uranium supply. We're excited about the opportunities ahead and look forward to delivering further value to our shareholders.
Before I turn it back to the Operator, a couple of points. First of all, today's call is scheduled to end around 12:00 P.M. Eastern Time. If we don't get to your question, please don't hesitate to reach out to our investor relations team, and we'll be happy to follow up directly. Second, please note that I'm joined today by Josephine Mann, our Chief Financial Officer, Scott Melbye, our Executive Vice President, and Brent Berg, our Senior Vice President of U.S. Operations. Together, the four of us are backed by a UEC team with more than 900 years of combined experience in the uranium industry. That depth of experience is what drives our daily execution across operations, finance, and strategy. With that, we'll open the call to questions. Operator, please go ahead.
We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star and then one on your telephone keypads. If you are using a speakerphone, we do ask that you please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star and two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble the roster. Our first question today comes from Brian Lee from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead with your question.
Hey everyone, thanks for taking the questions and thanks for hosting this call. I know there's a lot of focus around your ramp-up efforts here and moving from kind of asset status to producer status. It's helpful to start to see the early milestones and what's happening from a production standpoint. My first question, kudos on the production and the cost realization here in fiscal 2025. I know you might not be ready to give full guidance metrics, Amir, but can you at least give us some sense of what target ranges are potentially reasonable outcomes as you think about the next 12 months? You're going from 130,000 pounds to, you know, Christensen Ranch sounds like it's accelerating. You have a lot of early stage successful milestones, it sounds like, at Hobson CPP and Sweetwater Complex.
Is it fair to say we're going to still be in the hundreds of thousands of pounds of production in 2026, or could we be thinking about even a million pounds plus? What are the low and high-end outcomes that you could consider just based on how the next 12 months goes, both from a production standpoint but also from a market price and demand standpoint?
Hey Brian, thanks for that question. Operator, making sure you can hear me okay?
Yep, coming through loud and clear.
Okay, perfect. Brian, thank you again for that question. You know, something to touch on when you look at these results and when you look at the ramp-up, the bulk of production that we're reporting here came from mine units or header houses 10-7 and 10-8, which, as we disclosed, really only came on in the last few months, 10-7 in April and 10-8 in June. You can already see and appreciate that new header houses that are providing fresh new output and production are definitely putting us obviously on an uptrend. Brook Hollow is going to be another source of production growth. Clearly, that's going to, as we indicated, be completed around in terms of construction completion by November and the operational startup in December. Any way you look at this, Brian, production is ramping up and it's going to continue to ramp up.
For context, Christensen Ranch and Brook Hollow are only two of seven fully permitted projects in terms of satellite projects that we have in the pipeline that can support ongoing production growth. That does not include the Sweetwater Complex, which with this fast-tracking news and development, hopefully we could get the permit amendments necessary to conduct ISR at Sweetwater and be able to develop that project, bring that online as well. When you look at our total licensed capacity of 12 million pounds or over 12 million pounds per year, and when you look at our significant resources that I've already spoken to, you can see that this company's goal and ambitions are certainly to build a multi-million pound per year uranium producer.
Obviously, that's a plan and objective that we'll look to achieve over the coming years, but very much in lockstep with market conditions, market pricing, and government policy, and particularly the developments we're seeing in the U.S. around the strategic uranium reserve. This fiscal year, we did not see the strongest uranium prices. In fact, we ended July 31st around $70 per pound. That was a signal to us that it was a great time to build and scale operations, but not to necessarily be making sales. You saw that we intentionally held back production exactly for that reason. Then you saw overnight the uranium prices are actually over $80 per pound. Just to come back and to finish the answer to your question there, Brian, you know, this is our first call of many calls to come in terms of earning calls.
As we have more of these calls, we look forward to more interactions to demonstrate and show how the production ramp-up is progressing. I think you could say that in 12 months, we've delivered on two or three key takeaways. Number one, low cost. We've achieved low cost coming out of the gate at a time where we've seen struggling operational restarts out there. UEC and these operations and our team demonstrate that we've got the efficiency and the personnel and the team and asset base to deliver low-cost production. These numbers we've reported today are amongst the lowest costs reported by any company over the last one or two years using U.S. ISR or ISR in general. Volumes will increase as we build additional header houses, as we build additional satellite projects in quarters and years to come. We have fully permitted projects to do that with.
We're not limited by the long, long delays that are associated with permitting. We're in the driver's seat with what we're doing.
Super helpful. I appreciate the comprehensive answer. Maybe just one more and I'll pass it on. You alluded to government policy. There's been a lot of headline developments. I know you yourself, Amir, spend a lot of time in D.C. I wanted to touch upon a couple of things there. Any thoughts you can share on state of the state with respect to, you know, there's been talk about a strategic uranium reserve in the U.S.? Anything you can share on what you're expecting, timing impact-wise from, you know, potential Section 232 as it relates to uranium? Thirdly, on this URNC, I know it's still early stage, but then there's probably multiple potential outcomes for how you move forward. What's your thought process in structuring that venture to include some sort of either government funding, investment, offtake? What are the different government involvement exercises that potentially could play into that?
I know a lot of investors are focused on what happened with MP and I think just overnight with Lithium America. How does URNC and UEC potentially fit into that? How are you trying to, if you have your choice, structure that with government involvement? Thank you.
Thank you, Brian. I'll tackle that question in two ways. Let me just comment first with respect to the URNC. That's our U.S. Uranium Refining and Conversion Corp initiative. I'm going to hand it over to my colleague Scott Melbye to speak on some of the government policies that we're seeing developing in D.C. and on the Hill. Very clearly, and as we've stated, we've identified and seen for the last year and a half to two years that there's substantial bottlenecks in uranium refining and conversion, particularly in the U.S., but even on a global basis, especially if we're going to see a doubling and tripling or quadrupling in nuclear energy, as President Trump is calling for. Not only is the current capacity not enough to meet current demand, but it's going to have to expand substantially from these levels. We're looking at similar models across the world.
You look at how Chinese state-owned companies and Russian state-owned companies that we compete against, how they operate in the nuclear fuel cycle, they operate in a vertically integrated way. They don't just mine uranium in isolation or convert uranium in isolation. It's done under one banner. What we're trying to create here is really that American champion that can have end-to-end capabilities, which frankly has never existed before. If we have ambitions to try to compete with Russia and China, and if we're going to quadruple nuclear energy, that type of business model, that kind of company is necessary that can go from mining uranium to refining it and converting it and delivering the UF6 that enrichers need to support and enable further enrichment growth. This is one of a kind.
This has never been done before in the U.S., but it's being done around the world by major nuclear players. Clearly, this has massive alignment with government policy. We've seen this, and as you touched on, not only is government focused on these key areas of national security vulnerability with lithium, rare earths, antimony, but uranium and nuclear fuel has been identified several times, several ways by the Department of Commerce, by the Department of Energy as a national security issue that needs to be addressed. We think the alignment is very much on mark. It's timely. We started this initiative in terms of laying the groundwork, the engineering work, the engineering studies over a year, year and a half ago. We have a first-mover advantage, and the vertical integration is a key differentiator. We're the only company in the U.S. really tackling this issue end-to-end from uranium to conversion.
We've structured this to be able to address partnership from strategic involvement, whether it's government, utilities, or other strategic partners to be involved. When we look at how this gets evolved and to get more detailed about the funding of it, Brian, obviously as of right now, UEC is funding this 100% and URNC is 100% wholly owned subsidiary of UEC. As we have meetings and trips and discussions in the coming weeks and months, we'll have more updates and information to share in that time. More news flow will come on this very exciting initiative and development. We're very excited by it. We think it's very well timed. It's early days, so again, we'll have more information on it. Let me also give the floor to Scott to speak a bit more on some of the U.S. government policy developments. Scott, over to you.
Great, thank you, Amir. Brian, with regards to the strategic uranium reserve, I think we were very encouraged to hear Secretary Wright's comments over in Vienna at the IAEA meetings where he put forth pretty clearly in his remarks that the strategic uranium reserve is a policy that we should be pursuing to ensure energy security, national security, and build up our domestic stockpiles. We feel that as the Uranium Producers of America, we've lobbied very heavily along those lines. We think the strategic uranium reserve is good policy where taxpayer dollars are transferred to assets on the balance sheet of strategic U.S. origin uranium reserve that can serve both utility emergencies, supply emergencies for the electric utility industry, but can also support our defense programs, the naval propulsion programs as well.
We're also obviously looking forward to the end of the Russian imports with the Russian uranium ban fully kicking in at the end of 2027. We're working very hard to extend that to China. We've seen some disturbing import-export data between Russia, China, and China back into the United States that would indicate that they're, at worst, violating U.S. trade law and bringing in that Chinese uranium, which has really circumvented Russian supply or quite simply just bad policy. We're lobbying on that front to see, you know, we love global trade, but we draw the line at China and Russia in terms of strategic minerals and then critical minerals designation. President Trump already considers uranium a critical mineral and is issuing executive orders along those lines.
Really, the executive order to revitalize the industrial base to support a quadrupling of nuclear power in the United States is really focused on the fuel cycle, uranium conversion, enrichment. One of the things that we've seen, the most material thing that we've seen so far is the fast track permitting, the FAST 41, the transparency dashboard. Basically, the Trump administration is saying if you have a project that the federal government, either through inaction or action, has held up your project, bring it to the White House and they'll get it on the dashboard and put firm timelines for the review and issuing of permits. Uranium is a critical mineral. If we want more of it sooner, this is what it's going to take. We're very encouraged just across the board, the Trump administration's support for nuclear power more generally and specifically supporting the uranium conversion enrichment.
I think UEC, with our unhedged book and 12 million pound capacity and hopefully now moving into a vertical integration into conversion, will also give us some very specific support coming out of this administration. We'll see in the coming weeks. We're going to be in Washington, DC quite a bit between now and the end of the year and hope to gain some clarity on that.
All right, thanks everyone. We'll pass it on. Appreciate all the answers.
Our next question comes from Heiko Eile from HC Wainwright. Please go ahead with your question.
That was a very comprehensive answer here before, so one of my questions has already been answered. Amir and Scott, maybe if you want to provide a bit of color on, you know, the conversion business has obviously been ridiculously well received. You want to provide some color on the vertical integration that should allow you guys to go more downstream with that, please?
Hey Heiko, thanks for that question. It goes back to what we were saying here in terms of the business model around vertical integration. It is a very battle-tested business model. This is how the French, the Chinese, and the Russians are conducting the nuclear fuel cycle for maximum resiliency. The conversion business and downstream activities from uranium mining do also really help improve and expand on margins. We do generally see a different type of industrial type margin downstream from uranium mining than mining itself. When you look at the business model of combining the ability to control the uranium mining and processing asset and infrastructure that UEC has put together, and as I mentioned at the beginning, the sheer size advantage, right? We're not talking about building conversion on top of a mediocre size mining operation.
We're talking about the largest resource base and licensed production capacity ever assembled in the U.S. by one company as the foundation of what we're building the conversion on top of. That sheer size combined with going downstream, we just think is the perfect one-two punch. It speaks to the market opportunity. The bottleneck in conversion is real. That bottleneck in conversion, in fact, has arguably maybe to some extent hurt the uranium price in terms of not allowing the uranium price to reach the all-time highs that we all believe it should get to. Conversion enrichment prices conversely are near their respective all-time highs. This is really about providing diverse sources of revenue to the company as it develops multiple ways of delivering nuclear fuel supply.
It's really about that entirety of the supply chain for the nuclear fuel that one company can control that makes that company more strategically valuable. I think that's why this has been well received, Heiko, since we announced it, not just from a market point of view, but from conversations and feedback that we've received directly from the end users and the actual nuclear fuel market participants as well.
Fair enough. Obviously, you guys have an insane amount of experience in the uranium space. Building on some of your comments from earlier, you want to just maybe walk us through a bit where you see geopolitical factors go for the industry. I mean, obviously demand for North American, and especially for your product from South Texas, is through the roof. You want to just maybe provide the audience with a bit of color on where you see that going and key factors that may be underappreciated or not so much seen by the market yet?
Yeah, and again, we'll do it in two parts. I'll go first and then I'll let Scott speak to that too, especially within his role as the President of the Uranium Producers of America. That's our industry association. As recent as yesterday, as recent as, you know, the last year, we have seen a premium on uranium that can be delivered to a buyer in the U.S., warehoused in the U.S., compared to other locations. When the Department of Energy purchased the initial round of uranium for the strategic uranium reserve to stand that up over a year and a half ago, it paid an over 20% premium because of the way it's qualified. The U.S. reserve can only be filled through U.S. companies with U.S. production or U.S. inventory. We have certainly seen that this dependence on foreign uranium and nuclear fuel, where the U.S.
is effectively importing 100% of its nuclear fuel requirements, does create an opportunity to be a domestic supplier. At the same time, that domestic supply initially carries a premium with it because of the scarcity factor. Over time, of course, as domestic supply expands, production, conversion, and enrichment, market pricing should be more aligned with global market prices. There is a pinch point right now, and the most acute undersupplied market when it comes to nuclear fuel is the biggest market in the world. The biggest market in the world is the U.S. for nuclear fuel consumption. Over 90 reactors operating makes this the largest market anywhere. Yet again, there's this almost 100% dependency on foreign imports.
Let's not forget we have the Russian uranium ban that has already passed and is law, and it kicks in December 2027, which is really around the corner when you think about the fact that uranium mining, conversion, enrichment doesn't happen overnight. It takes years to permit, develop, and build these operations. That's part of the reason we've commenced our initiatives now is to really be in a position to be there and be that domestic source of supply, especially as the Russian ban takes full effect in late 2027. Between now and then, I think we can expect to see a premium on U.S. sources of mining and conversion. Scott, would you like to add to that?
Yeah, Heiko, I think you know the market structural deficit that we face globally today. If we look over the next two years, the world is consuming about 50 million pounds more than it's producing with the global mines. That structural deficit is only going to get bigger as we're now, I left the World Nuclear Association meetings in London a week before last, where the base case for nuclear growth outlook through 2045 is a doubling of nuclear power. That's just the start if we go to the aspirational goal of tripling nuclear power that the World Nuclear Association set out for President Trump's quadrupling. We need a lot, not just a little in terms of new production, we need a lot. It's also important to note that the world's largest producer today was the United States in 1980. It then was Canada on the strength of Saskatchewan.
Today it is Kazakhstan producing over 40% of global production. They share two very big important borders with Russia and China, who have very fast, big growing programs of their own. They recognize the strategic value of Kazakhstan, not only their uranium, but their oil and gas. I think going forward, we shouldn't expect, I think already today, 80% of Kazakh uranium goes to Russia or China. We need to be developing uranium resources in stable Western jurisdictions. The United States clearly has been underdeveloped in recent years, not for lack of resources. The United States Geological Survey estimates that there's over a billion pounds of known and likely resources of uranium in the Western United States. We're excited about this revitalization. We're happy to be at the forefront of it, but it really is a time where we're going to see U.S. uranium production really on a revitalization path. It really is an attractive premium product today.
Perfect. I'll get back in queue. Scott, I know we spoke yesterday. Happy belated birthday again. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Alexander Pierce from BNO. Please go ahead with your question.
Morning, Amir, Scott and team. You flagged in the recently you're working on upgrades at Eri-Gary for increasing the pace of growing and drumming the uranium. Is it fair to say this is currently the bottleneck for the project, the drumming side? You mentioned you're bringing on the new wellfields and that seems to be going very well. Can you give us a bit more update or more detail on the changes you're making within those upgrades and how much you expect to spend, and then maybe when you expect to complete those upgrades so we can expect the uptick in drummed output? Thanks.
Hey Alex, thank you for that. I'll take that up first, and then I'm going to invite Brent Berg to speak to that as well. Really, the way we saw this, Alex, was more to do with the fact that during fiscal Q4, with the intentional strategy we had on holding back inventory and the fact that we were not in any way required to make deliveries of the finished good, the dry drum uranium, we really took advantage of that opportunity and moment in time to make further upgrades to the equipment that is on the processing side, the packaging side of the plant, so that we can make sure when we did basically go into even further ramp-up mode and when sales and deliveries became more mission critical, that we were able to support 24/7 operations with two shifts basically.
It was really more to do with taking advantage of that window to give ourselves even more capacity for downstream or later in time. To that end, as you know, keeping the uranium in precipitated form is every bit as good as whether it's dried and drummed. There's very nominal cost associated from going from precipitated to dried and drummed. That's why we also presented some of the dried and drummed material to make sure that we were able to deliver and show what the initial production cost numbers are, which we're very pleased with. I'll let Brent also speak a bit more in terms of the details of what we're doing with the thickeners and calciners. Alex, to be clear, this is not a bottleneck right now. We could be drying and drumming uranium right now. We're simply increasing the capacity.
Again, because we didn't have any deliveries to make, it gave us the time to do that work without putting the team under the pressure of doing both the upgrade and drying and drumming at the same time. Brent, go ahead if you'd like to add to that.
Yeah, thanks, Amir. Alex, I would add that refurbishment activities were undertaken earlier in the fiscal year at the Christensen Ranch Satellite Ion Exchange Plant. We rebuilt the ion exchange columns in the main plant, and that work led to continuous 24/7 operation and the ability to operate the plant at design capacity. As Amir mentioned, in a similar manner, with no need for uranium sales, it was clearly an opportune time to upgrade the Eri-Gary Central Processing Plant at this stage. We're rebuilding one of two thickeners. It's a storage vessel for precipitated yellowcake prior to drying and packaging. The refurbishment includes the replacement of internal components with new parts. Additionally, we will do some refurbishment to the calciner that we use to dry our product to increase throughput of dried yellowcake. Updates will include components as recommended by the manufacturer to really increase our operational efficiency moving forward.
These are upgrades that are happening now and in the coming weeks.
Great, thank you.
Our next question comes from Katie LaChapelle from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead with your question.
Hi, Amir and team, thanks guys for taking my question. Most of my questions have actually already been answered, but maybe just one more on the inventory side. You ended the year with quite a considerable amount of inventory, having deliberately held back some material in the second half. As you said, the decision to not sell was due to low prices, but we've since seen, you know, spot prices rise about 15% since the end of your last quarter. How are you guys thinking about inventory build going forward and the timing of future sales? Is there a particular price point, say, you know, north of $80, north of $85, that you would look to monetize some of this existing inventory, or is the plan to continue to build inventory and hope for even higher prices?
Hey Katie, thank you for that question. The two things go hand in hand. You're right about the inventory, but you also got to take note of the balance sheet. The balance sheet with over $320 million of available liquidity and no debt is part of what allows us to have the ability to make calls like what we did here, right? Where we thought $70 was just kind of a ridiculous price and it didn't make sense to make sales there, and be able to be in a financial position to make that decision to intentionally hold back. Similarly today, as you point out correctly, we've seen an interesting pop in the uranium price overnight. We're back over $80 this morning. One of the other sequesters out there this morning is raising more money to buy physical uranium.
Katie, I would say as of right now, we have our kind of focus squarely on pending developments coming out of Washington. I think with the comments that Scott Melbye made already about Secretary Chris Wright's comments about boosting the strategic uranium reserve and some of the potential news that might come around what that reserve and the timing of U.S. government purchases will look like, along with the fact that there's a Section 232 investigation on critical minerals and uranium, the results of which are recommendations by the Department of Commerce are expected soon to be also sent to the White House. All of this really kind of creates an environment where we love the idea of sitting on as much U.S. warehouse uranium inventory as possible with these developments and actions taking place, particularly again in the U.S.
There isn't a price that we have in mind right this day. Just because uranium's at $80 doesn't mean we're rushing out and selling uranium at $80. We think there could be more interesting developments in the market, again, coming out of Washington that we want to be ready for. I'll let Scott add to this point as well. Scott, go ahead.
Yeah, Katie, we love the flexibility and we have the luxury of being able to hold. As Amir said, we could have signed contracts over the last three or four years that would have pressured us to produce faster, pressured us to sell into contracts that would be well below where the current spot and long-term prices are today. We've never felt more comfortable being uncommitted and unhedged going into the market that we're seeing develop right now.
Great, guys, thank you. Once again, congrats on the first quarter of production and solid cost.
Our next question comes from Joseph Reager from Roth Capital Partners. Please go ahead with your question.
Hey Amir and team, thanks for taking the questions. First thing, just kind of a point of clarity. On the 130,000 pounds you produced at Christensen Ranch, you guys referred to it as dried and drummed. Is it not considered part of your inventory because there's like one final finishing step, or is it like some companies where they separate their inventory from the inventory that's at a converter compared to the inventory that's, you know, on site at a project?
Hey Joe, thanks for that question. It's the latter. We just wanted to clearly, given that UEC had an inventory position that was previously purchased at market lows, we wanted to be very clear in making the distinction around that inventory and what is now obviously, as we have transitioned into production, is production-related inventory. Josephine, did you want to add to that point as well?
Yes, thanks Amir. This is Josephine Mann. The finished, the uranium concentrate that we mentioned about is included as part of the inventory on the balance sheet. You can see that it's the breakdown of the inventory. That is part of the uranium concentrate from extraction.
Okay, thanks. I just wanted to make sure I was understanding it correctly. On URNC, Amir, could you walk us through kind of how you see potential news flow as you advance that over, you know, call it the next 12 months? What can we and investors look for as far as updates from you guys?
Yeah, Joe, in no particular order, I would say there are several tracks that we're running simultaneously. One track involves the work that we're continuing to do with Fluor, and that's building on the past year's work of engineering analysis and reports and studies and details and tech work that had already been completed that got us here. One track will be engineering-related work by Fluor that we'll continue to do. As updates become available there, that'd be one source of news flow. A second track is we are in team-building mode to also continue to develop the dedicated team around the refining conversion initiative. There'll be information to share on that front. There are numerous discussions underway from government-level discussions to off-takers, utilities, strategic partnerships and investments, and investors, et cetera, all of which could be potential sources of updates as there's developments there.
Multiple tracks and everything's happening on parallel tracks. In no particular order, as we have developments and news from these various tracks, we could maybe be and hopefully be in a position to provide more updates. At least that's the goal, Joe, and how we're looking to push this forward. We're pushing and really are pushing to move expeditiously. This is a very timely opportunity. The feedback we're getting from various groups that we're in discussions with is that this is something we need to move very quickly on because it's very necessary.
Okay, thanks. That's very helpful. The rest of my questions were already answered, so I'll turn it over.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Christian Cuccioni from National Bank Capital Markets. Please go ahead with your question.
Hey there, thanks for taking my call, Amir and everyone. I'm asking on behalf of Mohammed, who's on a site visit right now. I was just wondering if you could provide a bit more color on the cash costs and total costs, specifically what's included in the non-cash costs and how we might expect the cash costs to progress as the Christensen Ranch continues and how the full rebuild of the yellowcake thickener and improvements to calciner might improve things or change things in the future. Thanks.
Thank you for that question. Again, at a high level, as you've seen with our numbers that we've reported so far, this low-cost production that we've achieved in such early innings of the production ramp-up is very noteworthy. It's industry-leading in terms of where it's come in. It really speaks to the efficiencies and the asset base and team that's operating here. Total cost per pound of $36.41. I'll let Josephine break down the cash component of that and the non-cash. To address your other question, the work that's almost complete on the thickener and calciner upgrades should not have any impact on future production cost numbers. If anything, like we said, it's meant to give us expanded capacity at the Eri-Gary Central Processing Plant. Josephine?
Yes, thanks Amir. Generally speaking, the total cash cost for plants is comprised of obviously the labor costs, chemical and utility costs that we incur at Christensen Ranch and also the Eri-Gary Central Processing Plant. In terms of the non-cash production costs, that mainly is coming from the depreciation of the mineral property acquisition costs from the time that we acquire Christensen Ranch from U1A. We allocate a part of the allocation cost to the Christensen Ranch mines that we are producing at right now.
Thank you very much. Would we expect that these costs that we saw in this quarter to be roughly what we should be looking at going forward?
Yeah, so. Go ahead, Josephine.
Okay, yes. The non-cash portion of the production cost is quite steady because we amortize on a straight line basis in terms of the acquisition costs. In terms of the cash production costs, we are foreseeing that it will be quite stable as compared to Q4 of fiscal 2025. That's also impacted by the production falling that we are expecting to have in the coming quarters.
Great, thanks very much. That's all for me.
Our next question comes from Justin Chen from SCP Resource Finance. Please go ahead with your question.
Hi Amir and Scott and Brent. I want to thank you, Brent, for your time last week. Really appreciate it. Darris and the team as well. A lot's been asked, but given your market-driven strategy, which has really played out really well so far, you haven't had contracts yet to deliver into or to buy pounds on market. I was just curious how you plan to hit our house ramp-up and your operational ramp-ups, given that you do have to manage volumes, but you also have your balance sheet gives you the luxury of being able to, let's say, set up ops for the long run instead of rush production. I'm just curious how you guys are looking at the next year with Texas coming on in Wyoming and at the current prices and also the direction things are trending.
I guess similar to the first question asked, I don't need an exact production range, but I'm just curious how you see things and how much focus there is on ramping up quickly versus seeing where the market goes.
Hey Justin, thank you for that and thank you for taking the time to tour our Wyoming operations last week. We appreciate that. I'll go first and then hand it over to Brent. I think there's kind of a few different sets of elements here to consider. One is obviously the uranium price. Our view remains that just as we've seen conversion and enrichment prices near their respective all-time highs, we should see uranium prices at some point based on, again, the current supply-demand fundamentals and given the supply deficit we see globally, not just in the U.S., but everywhere on uranium supply-demand studies. We really do believe that uranium prices need to, similarly to conversion and enrichment, probably reach their previous highs.
As that happens, we would look to obviously take a fuller sort of advantage of our permitted and existing capacity that we have of facilities, the processing plant, the resources, et cetera. Having said that, there's also human resource limitations. As we go through this update, you notice that we kind of proudly and importantly highlight the number of personnel that we have in our Wyoming and Texas workforce. This is an industry globally that has been quiet and somewhat dormant for the last decade. Today, the entire industry is really facing human resource challenges as it ramps up. This is an area that we're very focused on, we're investing in, and we continue to, again, demonstrate that the size of the team is growing to support those future ambitions of increasing production.
As you, as a company, tackle and build new projects, I think there's a tremendous competitive advantage you're building in know-how around new construction. Look at the fact that, and I'll let Brent speak to this, but you got to come and visit what we're doing at Brook Hollow. That is the newest uranium project anywhere in the world. That is the only new greenfield anywhere in the world that has been built from scratch. It's 90% complete, and as we mentioned, should be operational by December. The team that we have that has been directly involved with that project from, by the way, day one, going back to 2012 to now, by the end of completing this, will have a tremendous understanding around building new projects and commissioning new operations. That becomes a lasting advantage for UEC as we go to additional satellite projects and increasing production. Brent, I'll let you take it over from there.
Sure, thanks Amir. Justin, thanks for taking the time to visit our Wyoming operations. As you know, UEC is continuing with our production ramp-up. Mine development continues in Wellfield 11 at Christensen Ranch, where four header houses are currently under construction, paste well installations are near completion, and surface construction is on schedule for startup of additional fresh production in the coming year. Additionally, we've been doing delineation drilling in Wellfield 12, as well as expansions to Wellfields 8 and 10. That'll form the base of production at Christensen Ranch for the coming years. Down in Brook Hollow, as Amir mentioned, the project is 90% complete. The initial Wellfield is now set up with pumps down hole and the team testing operation of those. The pump line from the Wellfield to the satellite is being fused, pressure tested, and hooked up to the satellite, with final touches going on there.
In terms of the team, I just got to say I'm blessed to have some really skilled people working on our team in both Wyoming and Texas. I look forward to continuing to grow the team and ramp up production in both states.
Thank you.
Thanks a lot, guys. That was very comprehensive. Maybe just one follow-up. If prices do kind of ramp up much, much, much faster here, or perhaps there's an action from the administration that creates a U.S.-specific price or et cetera, I guess what would change from your operational plan? Say if uranium were $120 right now, how would that next year look different?
Just simple, Justin, just rate the rate of change on development and acceleration of wellfield delineation, rigs operating, and construction activity on whether it's wellfields or header houses. It's about also having that flexibility and optionality to adjust the rate accordingly to both market pricing and conditions.
Gotcha. Just given the constraints, for example, on the HR side, do you have a sense of how much faster you could do things?
Yeah, we do. I mean, I think again, the benefit of being in a position where you're operating and you're ramping up and the market can see that and the labor market can see that. Frankly, we've really benefited from incoming inquiries from folks who are working in the industry or used to work in the industry and left the industry and are really attracted to the opportunity to come to UEC. They see the platform that we've put together. They see the scale that we have, and there's an opportunity to see a real longevity when it comes to a career here. Everything we're doing in a way has become a self-fulfilling prophecy in terms of acting as a real magnet for us for being able to continue to attract the talent.
As we see there's a need to accelerate, we can also accelerate the uptake and intake of that HR sort of source and force that's coming to us.
For example, do you think doubling your rollout rate would be conceivable within a year if prices were there? I'm just trying to get a sense of quantum.
Look, our goals and ambitions are, you know, very much that. Again, we hope that the market conditions support that. We were somewhat frustrated by the way prices were subdued, you know, basically through to July 31, 2023, when our fiscal ended. We just thought the $70 uranium price made no sense. Sometimes the market can be that way.
Before it starts to really reflect the supply-demand fundamentals, we're seeing some noticeable improvements here, as we've talked about with respect to price. We have to see how it all plays out. We wouldn't be surprised if we saw further improvements in price, again giving us the backdrop with which we can continue to progress and ramp up our efforts.
Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we will conclude today's question and answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for any closing remarks.
Thank you. Again, thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Fiscal 2025 was truly a landmark year for UEC. We're just getting started with our operational achievements, strategic acquisitions, and the launch of URNC. We envision a platform to lead America's nuclear fuel cycle. We look forward to updating you on our progress and the quarters ahead. Thank you and have a great day.
Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's conference call and presentation. We do thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.