What happened

Uranium Energy (UEC 1.05%) stock plunged today and was trading down 11.4% as of 12:25 p.m. ET.

The uranium miner made a huge acquisition announcement today, but the stock couldn't escape the panic-selling that gripped the broader markets today as fears of rising inflation and a recession loomed large.

So what

Monday morning, Uranium Energy announced plans to acquire Canada-based uranium miner UEX in an all-stock deal worth about 234 million Canadian dollars.

Each UEX shareholder will receive 0.0831 shares of Uranium Energy. The exchange ratio implies an almost 50% premium to UEX's June 10 closing price on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Combined, the two companies will have the largest uranium asset base focused exclusively on North America. UEX owns stakes in several uranium deposits in Canada, especially in the Athabasca basin, a region known to have world's largest source of high-grade uranium.

Now what

Uranium Energy hasn't generated any revenue in several years now, but its recent aggressive moves signal how keen management is to start making money off the rebounding uranium markets. For example, Uranium Energy has steadily built its uranium inventory in recent months by buying spot uranium while it was cheap to sell later at higher prices.

That, however, is more of an attempt to make money from rebounding uranium prices. What matters are the company's long-term plans.

Last December, Uranium Energy acquired Uranium One, the world's fourth-largest uranium producer. It was the largest acquisition in the uranium industry in nearly a decade and gave a fillip to Uranium Energy's hub-and-spoke uranium business, including access to one of the largest uranium processing facilities in the U.S.

With the UEX acquisition, Uranium Energy now expects to more than double its uranium resources even as it gains entry into two of Canada's richest uranium plays, Saskatchewan and Nunavut.

Both of these are big moves and could position Uranium Energy as one of the important uranium players in North America provided it can develop projects as planned and start mining uranium while the market's still hot. That's a compelling prospect, one that would have ideally sent Uranium Energy shares higher any other day.