What happened
Shares of Denison Mines (DNN 1.00%), which owns 90% of the Wheeler River uranium mine development project, rose 10% in early trading on Feb. 9. That comes on the heels of a notable price move the day before, which has some uranium industry watchers thinking that short-squeeze issues might be at play in some fashion. Like yesterday, other uranium miners rose today, as well, though none had reached the 10% level by 11:30 a.m. EST.
So what
All in, there's really no way to tell exactly what's moving the uranium market or Denison right now. There's conjecture, but not a lot of material news. However, there has been news out of Denison.
On Feb. 8 the company announced a $24 million investment budget as it restarts work on the environmental assessment for the Wheeler River project. And today it announced results from earlier exploration efforts.
Image source: Getty Images.
Management was pleased with the 2020 exploratory drilling results at the Phoenix site, one of the two proposed mines contained within the Wheeler project. The headline of the news release proudly described it as the "best results to date at Zone C." Andy Yackulic, the company's director of exploration, explained, "The grades and thicknesses of the mineralized intersections from the 2020 Phoenix Zone C drilling represent a significant upgrade compared to historical drilling at Zone C." He added that optimism is increasing over the prospect of expanding the development possibilities for the Phoenix mine. That's legitimately positive news that might have gotten investors excited about Denison's stock.
Now what
Since the GameStop short-squeeze craziness got under way a few weeks ago, any move in a small stock or sector is now suspect. Uncertainty is pretty high right now, including in the uranium space. The news out of Denison over the last two days is definitely good overall, but alone probably isn't enough to justify long-term investors jumping aboard given recent trading activity in the uranium space. Indeed, until the mania that has engulfed message boards, news outlets, and even politics has fully passed, doing nothing with Denison is probably the best course of action.
