US company Energy Fuels Inc will become a commercial rare earths supplier in 2021, having entered into a three-year supply agreement to acquire a minimum of 2500 tons per year of natural monazite sands from which it will also recover uranium at its White Mesa mill in Utah. Separately, Vancouver-based International Consolidated Uranium Inc said it had been attracted to its newly announced acquisition of the Laguna Salada uranium project in Argentina by the by-product vanadium.

Production at the Cigar Lake uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan, Canada, will be temporarily suspended over the coming weeks due to the increasing risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Cameco announced today. The pandemic earlier prompted a five-month suspension of production from the Cigar Lake mine from March.

Industrias Nucleares do Brasil has started mining uranium from the new open-pit Engenho mine at Caetité, in Brazil's Bahia state. It is hoped that resumption of uranium production at the site will make the country self-sufficient in fuel for its nuclear power reactors. A ceremony was held yesterday at the mine site, during which a detonation was carried out, symbolising the beginning of open pit mining in a new area, the Engenho mine.

Fiscal 2021 allocations released yesterday by the US Senate Committee on Appropriations include USD150 million to initiate the uranium reserve programme to address challenges to the production of domestic uranium. The bills provide appropriations for the fiscal year running from 1 October, 2020 to 30 September, 2021 and also include continued funding for the Advanced Reactors Demonstration Program.

A planned expansion of the Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium mine in South Australia has been scrapped by BHP Billiton after studies of the ore body questioned the viability of the project. It has decided instead to invest in the existing infrastructure at the underground mine.

Resuming operation of the Kayelekera uranium mine in Malawi will cost an estimated USD50 million, a restart scoping study has concluded. Australian-based exploration company Lotus Resources Ltd bought the mine - currently in care and maintenance - from Paladin Energy earlier this year. Lotus says it now plans to advance to a restart feasibility study.

Rusburmash has completed geophysical surveys at the Dobrovolnoye uranium deposit in the Zverinogolovsky district of the Kurgan region of Russia and JSC Dalur has now started the construction of a pilot site for in-situ leaching of uranium there.

Most respondents to UxC's annual summer survey agreed that the uranium market has so far managed the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic effectively, and is proving robust, despite some initial issues with mine production. There is general consensus that the crisis will not harm the future of nuclear power, UxC said.

A newly completed update to Vimy Resources' definitive feasibility study for the Mulga Rock Project in Western Australia has demonstrated stronger financial returns than previously forecast for the uranium project, the company says. The DFS Refresh indicates an 8% decrease in cash operating costs over the first five years to USD23.33 per pound, and a 7% decrease over life-of-mine.

Kazakhstan's JSC National Atomic Company Kazatomprom says it will continue to "flex down" production by 20% through 2022. The company is also maintaining its 20% reduction in 2021, with no additional production planned to replace volumes lost in 2020 due to the measures taken to combat COVID-19.

Developing the Etango uranium project in Namibia as an 8 million tonnes per year (Mtpa) throughput operation as opposed to the 20 Mtpa operation envisaged in previous studies will cut upfront capital costs while maintaining project economics, according to a newly completed scoping study by Bannerman Resources.

Virginia's 38-year-old moratorium on uranium mining will continue following a district court ruling in a case challenging its constitutionality. Virginia Uranium Inc first brought the state suit in 2015 in its effort to mine what it claims is the largest known uranium deposit in the USA.