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Energy Fuels Inc. (UUUU)

Q2 2025 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 7, 2025

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. My name is Jeannie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Energy Fuels Second Quarter 2025 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. Mr. Chalmers, you may begin your conference.

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst

Thank you, Jeannie, and thank you for that introduction. Again, Mark Chalmers, CEO of Energy Fuels, and thank you for joining our Q2 conference call today. And I can say with absolute confidence that we had a big quarter with regard to momentum on many fronts, and I don't believe our timing could be any better; namely, rapidly advancement of our Uranium production with very high grades being mined, dropping unit cost, increasing production rates as we ramp up to 2 million pounds per year, and we expect the Pinyon Plain costs looking forward to be around $23 to $30 per pound of finished goods of Uranium, which are exceptional and Q1 cost. We're also rapidly advancing our Rare Earths separations with the expansion of the White Mesa Mill Phase 2 and significantly improved Rare Earths pricing, particularly ex China, where the prices ex China for Dy and Tb are approximately 350% higher than China prices. And at the same time, NdPr prices are up about 20% in the mid-70s in the last month. Our Heavy Mineral Sands portfolio is also rapidly advancing. So, there's no shortage of things to do at Energy Fuels. We received our final regulatory approvals on the Donald project, which is rich in heavies. We're also advancing our feasibility study and nearing the completion of our feasibility study on Toliara, and the other agreements with the Madagascar government and the permits and drilling at Bahia. We have improving financial results, and we have strengthened balance sheet as compared to Q1 '25. Our cost and margins of Uranium production are improving materially as Pinyon Plain ore is planned to be processed starting in Q4. No Pinyon Plain ore has been processed as of this date. As I typically do, I'm going to be making a short…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And your first question comes from the line of Nick Giles with B. Riley Securities.

Nicholas Giles

Analyst

My first question, obviously, there's a ton of excitement across Rare Earths. And I have to imagine others are trying to have discussions with agencies like the DoD that I think you hinted to last quarter for potential offtake in funding. So my question is really, what do you feel is the most critical differentiator, specifically in the eyes of those agencies that gives you a greater likelihood for either offtake or funding so on?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst

Well, I think we, when we say we're going to do something, we do it. And we also have the infrastructure to actually do it. You can take people to the White Mesa mill, and there's a built operable site with 100-plus people working there, laboratories, a Phase 1 separation circuit. You've got product that has been qualified by some of the end users. And you see the number of projects that we've accumulated. I mean we're not just a one mine company. I mean we have Bahia, we have the Donald project. We have Toliara. We have an agreement with Chemours. We secured the monazite from Florida and Georgia. So what they see is scale, low cost infrastructure in place and the skills required to advance. And I think that really sums it up at a high level. And you can go touch and feel it. It's interesting. A lot of people are in D.C. talking about their projects. Well, they don't have any project. They have a PowerPoint presentation. And we actually have a fully constructed site in multiple projects that are advancing in a lot of cases, permitted to advance. The molecules. We are the molecule machine and a lot of people are short of molecules.

Nicholas Giles

Analyst

Mark, I appreciate that perspective. Maybe just a follow-up. Can you just walk us through your plans to procure sufficient levels of feedstock as we think about processing as early as Q4 '26? I mean, should we think about this is coming from Chemours, or could you explore other sources outside the scope of energy fuels?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst

Yes, that's a good question because really on the Rare Earths front, and we're constrained on feedstock. I mean, right now, the only feedstock we have is what we get from Chemours. And they, once or twice a year, they send us a few hundred tons, and we're stockpiling. We're getting a fairly reasonable stockpile built up. But there are other companies that come to us and ask if we would be willing to procure monazite from them, and it could be from pretty much any place in the world. A lot of them are shipping to China right now. There are companies from Australia and the United States that are still shipping monazite to China. It's not a good look. So, we're always open to looking at what opportunities may be out there to procure additional material. and stockpile it at the White Mesa Mill and then run it in due course. So, it's dynamic. I don't have a complete answer there, but we're building up inventories. We're still talking to people about buying inventories. But once we get projects like the Donald project, if it passes the final investment decision, it gets built, then we start having world material commercial scales that are coming from our own operations that we can depend on because it will be coming at a regular rate and an expanding rate as we get these progressive projects in line and operating.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Heiko Ihle with H.C. Wainwright.

Heiko Felix Ihle

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright.

Congrats on another good quarter. It's been nice to watch you guys transform the farm over the last few years here. Let's talk about Pinyon Plain a little bit. The site is obviously a big driver for the farm right now. I mean I searched your press release and Pinyon Plain has mentioned 20 times in it. You mentioned $23 to $30 per pound in costs earlier on this call. And then in the release, you actually break it down $10 to $14 for transport and $13 to $16 for milling costs. Great margin at those prices. Let's talk about what things could move us from the lower to the upper end of this guidance range, if you'd be so kind. I mean, especially on the mining and transport, you got a 40% range. And is it labor? I mean you know the mine, sorry, the mill quite well. So I assume there's only so much variability there in that part.

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright.

Yes. Heiko, I mean, on the guidance, we're always trying to be conservative on our guidance. And I was trying to hint a bit that if we get 600,000 pounds in a quarter, we can put a lot of pounds out there or send it to the mill. Our biggest limitation has been the truck and trucking from the mill, and we're building that up. We currently have about 10 trucks per day, 5 days a week, and we're trying to get that up to, well, it will average no more than on an average on a daily basis, 7 days a week, no more than 10 trucks per day. But that's really the limitation. I can tell you, if there was no limitation on the amount of ore that we're hauling from the mill or to the mill, we could be putting a lot of more Uranium down on the ground right now. But what we're doing is, as we're producing the Uranium, we're also doing the required development work down to the Juniper zone as we are advancing the development there so that we can put in additional drill stations and we can do more drilling. So we're trying to keep it balanced. And, but yes, the trucking is the major impediment there, but we're working to resolve that, and we're building up momentum on that front. And also, it's grade dependent. So you have to have the trucks and you have to have the grade. The average grade we've mined thus far has been about 2%, which is very, very high grade. So you can get about 30 pounds per tonne in every truck. And so that's the reason for the range. We hope to beat guidance, okay? But we haven't changed the guidance. And our goal is always to exceed guidance. But until we have all those pieces together, Heiko, we're being a little conservative.

Heiko Felix Ihle

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright.

Fair enough. Fair enough. It's, one can read between the lines here a little bit better now. You, completely different question. You have the strongest balance sheet the firm has ever had since I started following it the way it is right now. Arguably, this is even more impressive given your recent M&A. Conceptually, has your internal thought process on minimum cash or minimum working capital changed over the past, call it, 12 or 24 months?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright.

Well, look, I mean, we've got a lot of activities, Heiko. And a lot of these activities could require cash in different shapes and form, whether it be an M&A transaction potentially. It could be some of the certification payments required for Toliara, which can take a pretty large load on us. I've always been of the believer to have a very strong balance sheet because Murphy is out there somewhere. But I think really from a management perspective and a Board perspective, the focus has been just to maintain that strong balance sheet to have plenty of cash and be in a position that we are not short cash because the last thing you want to be in this business is short cash, particularly when your success makes you short of cash, depending on what makes you short of cash.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Katie Lachapelle with Canaccord Genuity.

Katie Lachapelle

Analyst · Canaccord Genuity.

Two days ago, we actually saw some reports out of Australia that the Australian government is considering setting a floor price to support critical minerals projects, specifically Rare Earths. So that would be very similar to what the DoD did with MP Materials. I'm just wondering in your discussions with you and your partners at Astron, have you been in discussions with the Australian government regarding potential funding support for the Donald project or potential floor prices? And then similarly, do you also think you could see similar support from the U.S. government?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst · Canaccord Genuity.

Yes, Katie, thanks for calling in. Yes, this whole world is talking about floor pricing to provide some protection to China manipulation and China costs. Yes, we have had discussions with Astron. I've had discussions with the Australian government on all these things similarly to what we've had discussions with the U.S. government. I think the realization is that you will never be able to material break away from China unless you have some level of support. And so I'm very encouraged with these announcements and with what we're seeing with MP, because it just gives an insurance policy that China isn't going to flood the market and put you out of business. So it's all work in progress. I mean, really, when you think about it, the floor pricing discussions are fairly recent. They've come out over the last month or so, month or 2, but it obviously is getting additional traction. So again, I think we're ideally placed. As I mentioned, when you look at MP and Lynas and we're the third largest market cap publicly traded Rare Earths company out there and you look at the scale that we have, I mean, I think we're just so well positioned that the activities we've had, Katie, over the last 5 years with the acquisitions and the advancement of our processing just puts us in a very, very unique position.

Katie Lachapelle

Analyst · Canaccord Genuity.

Definitely. And then maybe one follow-up on potential support from the U.S. government. are you of the view that the U.S. government will be more likely to allocate funding or support towards the expansion at White Mesa? Or do you think they would extend beyond the United States and actually look to potentially provide support on the development projects to Toliara and Donald?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst · Canaccord Genuity.

Yes. Look, I think the U.S. government in the first instance, prefers to advance and fund projects that are in the United States. But you also have to get back to the realities of the United States. With the exception of Mountain Pass, there really aren't a lot of quality Rare Earths deposits in the United States. I mean you look at the monazite we get from Chemours in Florida and Georgia, it's high and heavies. So, I think they prefer the United States, but they recognize they have to have a global footprint. I mean you look at how they've reached out to Australia in a number of cases, certainly Canada and even into Africa. The U.S. government is interested in securing reliable material scales so that they have some geographic diversity. So, I mean, they prefer, but yet at the same time, the realities are there are not a lot of heavies in the United States of America, unless it comes really from the monazite. And in the case for us, you have the Donald project in Australia, which is high and heavy. So, but we think the appetite is there from a number of different angles with the U.S. government to help finance projects globally. And it could be floor prices alone would be sufficient.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Justin Chan with SCP Resource Finance.

Justin Chan

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

Congrats on being where the puck start being where the puck is starting to go early, strategies coming together. Just a few questions. One is on Astron and Donald. So just to confirm the financial side of things in FID, can I confirm that, so you will essentially make a payment if you both elect to go ahead with the project of AUD 183 million, and that will secure your 49%. And then that amount is payable towards your share of CapEx? Or would your share of CapEx for Donald be in addition to that $183 million?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

No. The $183 million is really our buy-in to the project and the equity portion is really what is geared around. Both parties will have to pay their own debt portion pro rata on their share and any additional equity that might be required to obtain financing. So, but yes, really our buy-in. And Dave, I don't know if you want to add anything to that.

David C. Frydenlund

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

Yes. No, that's right. The $183 million would basically cover the equity contributions of both parties, and that would be our buy-in. Our buy-in would be paying Astron's equity contribution, and then we would pay our own, and that would all total to $183 million. And as Mark says, if that increases at all due to financing needs, that would be paid pro rata by the partner.

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

So basically, our buy-in on that project was about $60 million or thereabouts. And so far, I mean, with some of the prefit work and everything, I think we've invested about $20 million or something around that at this point in time. So yes, we're pleased that we have that project, and we have that project permitted and it's at a good address in Australia and permitted.

Justin Chan

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

Got you. So that, just to make sure I'm clear on this. So that $183 million goes into, let's say, the Donald Project Co? Or does that go to Astron? And then I'm just trying to calculate like what the balance to fund is.

David C. Frydenlund

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

Yes. It goes into the joint venture.

Justin Chan

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

Right. That $183 million is available for both of you?

David C. Frydenlund

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

Yes, the $183 million goes into expenditures by the joint venture in advancing the project. Right.

Justin Chan

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

I see. So, you could effectively as a group, debt fund the remainder then?

David C. Frydenlund

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

Yes, absolutely. Yes. As Mark said, that's Australian dollars. They're a lot smaller than U.S. dollars.

Justin Chan

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

Yes. Okay. Got you. And then could you maybe talk us towards sort of what the next steps are for confirming FID there now that it's got its permits? Is it just investigating offtake? There was a revised capital estimate, I think, less than a year ago. I'm just curious what the next steps are.

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

Yes. It's really focused on bankable offtakes, both for the Heavy Mineral Sands and the Rare Earths products is really what it boils down to. And we're looking at that in relationship to the capital operating costs, returns on the project. So that's really the bit is getting the bankable offtakes, securing financing and getting the position, the project ready to go, [Break] [Technical Difficulty] but it's not over until you get all the money to do the project. it is relative to the Rare Earths world, it's a pretty small strike rate. I mean if you look at in U.S. dollars, it's around $300 million for the project, the combined both parties in terms of, so yes, watch this space, Justin, but we've really got to get the bankable offtakes and be in a position to get the financing to make the FID decision.

Justin Chan

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

Got you. And maybe just a bit more color on that. So is it offtakes more on the titanium and zircon products or on the Rare Earths side of things or both?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

Both.

Justin Chan

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

Okay. Perfect. And then on Pinyon Plain, especially, I mean, you've been way outperforming the reserve grade. The drilling has been encouraging. Just wondering what your time lines are on putting out an updated either reserve or mine plan to help the market kind of start pricing this into the long-term outlook for your company?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

Yes. We've got SOR working on that right now. I don't know, Dave, have you heard the exact time line on that. I mean they've got some stuff that's still into the laboratories for analysis and they're pulling together. What's interesting about the Pinyon Plain, and Justin, you'll appreciate this, is that the, what we think we're seeing is that when the original modeling was done, the model constrained on high grades and the area influence of the high grades to be conservative. And what we've seen and what we think we've seen is that we didn't need to constrain it because those high grades actually were, could be projected out for quite a large distance. So that's why we're getting this significant increase. Also, even though we've done drilling in the Juniper zone, as I mentioned, over half of that Juniper zone still has a whole pile of drilling to do. So, I think what you're going to see fairly soon, probably, I'm guessing by the end of the year, an update on the resource and then there's going to be this geologic potential to expand this further. And what you're also seeing is that when you look at some of these grades like 5%, 7%, you can fit a lot of Uranium in a very small space like you see in Athabasca. Effectively, the Pinyon Plain mine is a miniature Athabasca mine with the grades that we're seeing, and it doesn't take a lot of space to hide a lot of pounds if it's very high grade.

Justin Chan

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

Absolutely. Yes, it's doing great. Just can't wait for, I guess, more data to just price it into the long term. And then just one on, I guess, Toliara and maybe the Rare Earths master plan here. In terms of, I guess, pressing the button on the Phase 2 expansion for White Mesa, you imagine that you would, that would be around the same time as FID on Toliara, i.e., you're mentioning you could make that decision next year?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst · SCP Resource Finance.

Yes. I mean, right now, our main focus is on the projects that we have that are fully permitted and can go forward right now. So, when you have Donald, you have the ability to receive material from Chemours and you can receive from others. And then you look at where we are with the White Mesa Mill. Now we still have to submit our Phase 2 documentation to the state of Utah for final approval. I don't believe that we may pull the trigger on Phase 2 even without all the permits in place on Toliara. Now in the perfect world, we'd like to have both, right? But it takes time and how we phase things is still work in progress, Justin. But we want to have the larger scale. We want to have the separate plant and the ability to process both Uranium ores unimpeded and Rare Earths ores unimpeded as soon as we can. And we'll just be evaluating how best to do that. So just quickly, the Pinyon Plain resource update should be December, not to change topics. But we see the expansion of the White Mesa Mill in the United States is something very attractive for whether it be the government or even private parties because of its ability to produce monazite. And we'll just see how that unfolds with the various other projects we have.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Zach Perry with Robertson Stephens.

Zack Perry

Analyst · Robertson Stephens.

Mark, congratulations on another good quarter. People have really kind of hoped at the financing of Rare Earths, obviously, is a big geopolitical game, as I've always said. And I hate to have you try to read the mind of the government. But does the U.S. government understand both the structure of your supply chain, what you need to do? And if you get to scale your superior volume and cost structure? Because if so, you would think that you guys would be a very high priority after they sort of walked in with saving MP.

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst · Robertson Stephens.

Yes. Look, Zach, thanks for calling in. I think with the U.S. government, it's part of it's an education process because most of the people in the U.S. government are not like Rare Earths technically skilled mining engineers, processing engineers. I mean they have some of that. But, and you just have to keep telling your story and showing that you can advance your story. And I think, though, it is resonating with them that there are a lot of stories out there, but there really are only a handful of legitimate stories. I mean a lot of them are more hopes and wishes, and we can do it if you give us money stories, and we're not that. So I think that they're getting more up to speed with how this market interrelates and the importance of each step. And I think they're also aware that they can't have investment in a single project that they have to have multiple projects because, as you know, Zach, a lot of projects will fail or underproduce, or may never produce. So I think they're getting up to speed. But what's remarkable is how keen they are to reshore a lot of these capabilities and get world- scale molecules and not just world-scale molecules for the Defense Department in the U.S., but countries like Canada and the European Union, even places like Japan, they need molecules, too. And you don't have those mines in Europe and you don't have those mines in Japan. So it's kind of a global issue. So I think they're getting it more, but it's been a learning process, and it's been a learning process for a lot of people.

Zack Perry

Analyst · Robertson Stephens.

Got it. And could your time lines be sped up if the government push fast forward on their support?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst · Robertson Stephens.

Look, money can speed up a lot of things. But you also have to look at the practicalities, too, because you have things like how much can you speed up the permitting, how much can you speed up the construction and long lead times and things like that. So yes, it can be sped up. The question is how much. And, but what's interesting and unique for us is, for example, we have the Phase 1. It's already constructed, and we have Donald permitted. So we can speed up at least to the capacity of Phase 1 for the lights and potentially the heavies quicker than others can. So that's a unique position that Energy Fuels can do Uranium. It can do the Rare Earths at the Phase 1 scale, and/or in the future at the Phase 2 scale. So we have stepping stones that others don't have.

Zack Perry

Analyst · Robertson Stephens.

Got it. And then real quick on Uranium. Congrats on proving an incredible cost structure. Now Uranium market has sort of been in a Mexican standoff for, I feel like a couple of years in terms of pricing. Pricing has gone up a lot, but we haven't seen true contracting at what you would expect high prices needed to create increased supply. And obviously, I think that's what you're waiting for. What actually finally breaks that standoff where you actually see contract pricing come in at volume at a price that we might think clears the market?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst · Robertson Stephens.

I think it's just the beginning, but I think that the utilities are starting to see where a number of new producers are failing to deliver on time and are struggling. And we've seen that starting to emerge over the last year. And a lot of the discussions we have with utilities is that they need more product. In our case, they flexed up on some of our contracts because they're short of material from new producers that are not producing. So, I mean, there is a pretty active market right now. I mean we're getting quite a few RFPs coming in. And again, the term prices are $80 or even higher. So, you do have a higher term price than the spot, which I think reflects that the utilities believe that the price is going to be higher. and the ceilings are going higher, and the floors are coming up. So, I think all the pieces are in place to see these improvements in the spot price and the term price going forward.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Noel Parks with Tuohy Brothers Investment Research.

Noel Augustus Parks

Analyst · Tuohy Brothers Investment Research.

Just a couple. I just wonder, and I apologize if you touched on this earlier, but could you just talk a little bit about, there's still all the excitement with the SMRs versus the different projects for restarting existing legacy reactors. And could you just talk a little bit about sort of a reality check on the legacy versus the SMRs and their sort of their impact on Uranium demand because I feel like they tend to get sort of discussed as a little bit lumped together. So, any thoughts there would be great.

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst · Tuohy Brothers Investment Research.

Yes. No. Look, the quickest way to increase demand is restart a reactor that's already built. And I think that's surprising people because you're seeing even reactors in the United States that are being restarted. I mean you look at Japan, Japan shut down all these reactors after Fukushima and they're restarting them. So, the demand is going to increase quicker with restarts because given 6 months or a year or 2 years, they can restart and they have to be reloaded and you see that where they have to go out and buy the Uranium. SMRs are ways off, quite a ways off. And so, I think the disconnect is that it's just that, the existing, it's really no different. If you have a permitted mill, you can do something with it. If you don't have a permitted mill, you can't. So, when you look at from the mining or processing side of things. So yes, I see the restarts as immediate demand, and you can bank on that, particularly when you see big tech companies putting the money into the restarts and the utilities signing an agreement. That's the way to get the demand up quicker. And SMRs are work in progress and you're looking out probably at least 2030-ish or so before that starts to become a real factor. But it takes time for all these things. It doesn't matter if you're mining or you're doing nuclear power plants. It takes a lot of time to get the permits and to build them. And, but I'm really encouraged with what I'm seeing with restarts.

Noel Augustus Parks

Analyst · Tuohy Brothers Investment Research.

Great. And just to clarify a bit for me. So is there a time horizon, and I know I'm asking you to predict the future, which is always hazardous. But do you have a sense of a threshold where perhaps the SMRs, some of those go into FID, their plans become more concrete where the market starts to sort of backfill a bit and start thinking about what premium, what sort of time premium really should be built into the price to sort of make sure that wherever the demand is coming from, that any given party can lock in supply and not be the last one trying to crowd through the door. And any sense of in advance of the SMR going live that you could see the pricing ripple into the market?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst · Tuohy Brothers Investment Research.

Yes. Look, I think that the best way to get a handle on that is you go to TradeTech or UX, and they have forecasts that are a lot more scientific than I can give you over the phone or on this call. But I do see this that I, and after being in the business for coming up on 50 years, I don't know how we're going to fill the demand, with new Uranium projects. And I think when you look at existing projects that are becoming mined out and have to be replaced, whether it is anywhere around the world, if you start to double the demand for nuclear fuel products, you're going to have to double the mining of new Uranium. And people haven't explored for Uranium for decades in any material way, and I don't know where it's going to come. So I think all these pieces, including the restarts, SMRs, but also the build rate in China, I don't know where they're going to get all their fuel.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Gary Steele.

Gary Steele

Analyst

I hope you can hear me all right.

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst

I do, Gary. Thanks for calling in.

Gary Steele

Analyst

Absolutely. Absolutely exciting quarter beyond belief after having watched the company for many years, what a treat. A couple of questions. With all the press and excitement around this Ramaco thing up in Ranchester, Wyoming and of course, Mountain Pass, is there anything you can share or would be at liberty to share regarding any synergies or opportunities with those 2 projects?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst

See, I have to think about that, Gary. I think, again, we go back to this differentiator being monazite, monazite sands, very high grade, good distributions of NdPr and heavies and the economics. So I mean, our strategy is different than theirs. And for me, as a mining engineer, grade is always keen when you're processing things. So yes, I mean, I don't really know the synergies between the groups other than we will have probably likely more heavies than any of them with the projects we have and the monazite deposits we have. But everybody in the Rare Earths space is getting attention right now. And I do think that the realities of the cost of production and the grade of these deposits is really going to, something that's important in the scheme and the economics going forward. And we know with what we've done thus far and the monazite that we've received and the project we have that we're going to be a low-cost producer. So we're focusing on being a low-cost producer. And the others will have to do their studies and make sure they can process and do the things that they say they're going to do.

Gary Steele

Analyst

Sure. Another totally separate question. I assume that your Uranium runs and your Rare Earths runs have to be done separately and involve a cleanout and turnaround between runs. Is that accurate?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst

Yes. We're trying to be flexible here. Right now, and just conceptually, when we talk those 2 million pounds per year or thereabouts, that's about an 8-month run or 9-month run. And we can have a window between that run, a Uranium run and the next Uranium run and a Rare Earths run. So, but we're going to be flexible because we can generate really exceptional margins on the Uranium. We've got to have enough Rare Earths feed to justify a run, but it does take time to switch over. I mean the mill; you don't just flip a switch. It probably takes a month to retrofit and take certain equipment out of the tanks and whatnot about a month each direction. So, we want to minimalize that as much as possible, but we really want to make sure that we're really focused on our best margins for our shareholders going forward. But we have the ability to do both, but it isn't a switch, until we have Phase 2, okay? Phase 2 will be completely separate, and they can both run independently, and then we will not have to do that.

Gary Steele

Analyst

So Phase 2 will add new front end to the SX circuit so that you can run both materials independently from one another?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst

Correct. Completely independent. And Gary, you know this. The mill has not been ran at capacity for a lot of years. And I think that our best years are ahead of us because I think we are going to need to run both our facilities at or near capacity going forward, including the Phase 2 plant.

Operator

Operator

And your final question comes from the line of Aaron Vadakkan with Alta.

Aaron Vadakkan

Analyst

Congrats on all the progress this quarter. I was, I'm glad you brought up the benchmark ex-China pricing. It's really exciting and something that I've been looking at, too. I was just wondering if you could share how those prices and how those changes have impacted your offtake conversations?

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst

Well, the benchmark prices came out a week ago or so. So, it's recent, okay? But what's interesting, I did get a text message this morning from another forecaster and said, they think they're low, okay? They are actually higher. No, I haven't verified that. So, I mean, I think it kind of goes back to this whole story on these floor prices that people are realizing that you got to pay more if you're going to compete with China. And I have to admit, it surprised me when you had 350% more with this first publication. So, I mean, it's certainly not going to hurt them. And we think that this whole concept you have to pay more is a reality. And I think that's gaining traction. I think the MP deal proves that the government thinks you have to pay more. And let's see where it goes. But the Australian government talking about floor prices, I think everybody is just realizing that there's got to be a different market. Otherwise, you're truly not independent.

Kim Ronkin Casey

Analyst

I just want to thank you all for calling in, for watching the webcast. We very much appreciate your participation. I just want to remind and let everybody know that our management team will be attending several upcoming industry and investor conferences. I'm just going to run through a couple of them very quickly. It will be the Citi’s 2025 Natural Resources Conference, EnerCom Denver, U2025 Global Uranium Symposium, the World Nuclear Symposium 50; Jefferies Industrials 2025, the H.C. Wainwright 27th Annual Global Investment Conference, the Pinyon Plain Institute, Critical Minerals Symposium, Uranium Summit, and the Power Up BNP Paribas. So thank you again, and we'll try and get all of that information uploaded onto our website so everybody can follow along. And now Mark will just say a few closing words.

Mark S. Chalmers

Analyst

Yes. Again, thank you for those of you who joined. I think that really the closing words I have is we've been playing a long game. We're not playing short games, flash in the pan. We've been focused on Uranium for decades or at least the assets have. But when we added the Rare Earths, I mean, we started a journey about 5 years ago. We held to that. There were criticisms from people that we shouldn't be getting into Rare Earths critical minerals. And it's interesting because a lot of them are calling me up now and saying, "Wow, that was great. Why didn't, we're happy you did that. So, we are focused on continuing the journey to build a world significant cost competitive critical mineral company that has 10-plus critical minerals that can be produced commercially and at scale. And really, I don't know anybody who's done that. So it's been a unique strategy. We're starting to bear the fruits of that. And even with our Uranium peers, year-to-date, we've been the best producing Uranium share this year, year-to-date. And even when you look back a year or even start looking back over 5 years, we have outperformed our peers in many cases in the Uranium space. We're performing well in terms of our peers in the Rare Earths space. So this is not an accident. It's a strategy that we've been committed to and will continue to be committed to.

Operator

Operator

So thank you very much. Thank you for participating in the Energy Fuels conference call. Please reach out to the company directly for any additional investment questions. This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.