Uranium Price Today: Live Chart & Price History

Uranium does not trade on an open exchange the way oil or wheat does. Buyers and sellers, mainly nuclear utilities and mining companies, negotiate contracts privately, so there is no single screen price. Published uranium prices come from price reporters who survey the market, and different reporters can land on slightly different numbers.

The standard unit is U3O8, a concentrated form of natural uranium often called yellowcake, sold by the pound. The figures on this page are month-end snapshots plus annual averages of what U.S. reactor owners actually paid, so treat them as reference points and not as a live quote.

The headline figure is the industry average spot price at the end of the latest month in the data. Cameco calculates it from month-end prices published by two market reporters, UxC and TradeTech. The table below shows the previous months and the same point a year earlier, so you can see how much the price has moved.

Spot deals are one-time purchases, usually delivered within a year. They make up a minority of volume, but they are the number most often quoted in the news because they react quickly to changes in supply and demand.

Most uranium is bought under long term contracts that run for several years. The long term price is also reported at each month end, and it generally moves more slowly than spot because it reflects agreements made earlier and expectations over a longer horizon.

The long term price in the data for the latest month is $96.50/lb, against $83/lb a year before.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration publishes an annual Uranium Marketing Annual Report covering purchases by owners and operators of U.S. civilian reactors. Its weighted average prices reflect the mix of contracts signed in different years, so they often look quite different from the current spot price.

The report splits purchases by contract type. Spot contract purchases carried a higher average price than long term contracts, which fits the pattern of long term deals locking in earlier terms. The latest report covers the previous calendar year, so it trails the market by several months. You can read it at eia.gov.

Uranium prices respond to forces that work on very different timelines:

• Mine output, including production plans and disruptions at major producing countries.
• Reactor demand, which depends on the number of operating plants and on new builds and restarts.
• Inventories held by utilities, governments and traders.
• Enrichment and conversion capacity, since uranium must be processed before it becomes fuel.
• Trade policy and sanctions that change where uranium can be sold.

Because supply responds slowly to price signals, the market can stay tight or loose for a long stretch.

You may find a different uranium figure on another site. Some quote a single day, some a weekly indicator, and others the average of a month, and each reporter uses its own survey of deals and offers. The units can also differ, since some sources quote the price of uranium oxide while others quote a price for enriched or converted material. When comparing numbers, check the date, the material and the pricing basis.

No. This page reports historical data and official statistics. It does not predict where prices will go. Anyone considering buying uranium or related stocks should speak with a licensed financial adviser.