ATHABASCA BASIN & ALL TIME PRODUCTION HIGH’S IN SASKATCHEWAN
ATHABASCA BASIN & ALL TIME PRODUCTION HIGH’S IN SASKATCHEWAN
The Athabasca Basin
The Athabasca Basin covers 100,000 square kilometers in northern Saskatchewan and Alberta – an area larger than New Brunswick. Since 1975, the Canadian economy has benefited greatly from the Athabasca Basin’s uranium production. 7
Saskatchewan Uranium Production
According to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources, uranium production reached a new record high of 16.7 thousand tonnes last year, representing an increase of 28 per cent over 2023, and uranium sales also reached a new high of $2.6 billion.8
URANIUM IN CANADA
Canada is the second largest producer and exporter of uranium in the world, with 15% of global production in 2022. Also in 2022, 80% of Canada’s uranium production was exported for use in nuclear power generation throughout the world. However, production has slowed down.9
URANIUM APPLICATIONS
Uranium is used primarily to produce fuel for nuclear power plants (more than 99% of the total use)1, and the A.I. revolution is driving a surge in demand for energy, primarily for data centers. Globally, data centers’ electricity demands are forecasted to grow 258% from 2023 to 2030.2
What uses do much energy in data centers?
-
Cooling
- Servers
- Networks
- Storage
- Cooling
- Servers
- Networks
- Storage
Source 9: Link
DATA CENTERS USE MORE ELECTRICITY THAN
ENTIRE COUNTRIES
Currently there are 7.2 million data centers in the world, according to the German statistics office. The US has 2,670, by far the most. Currently, many experts estimate that data storage and transmission in and from data centers use 1% of global electricity.10
Domestic electricity consumption of selected countries vs. data centers in 2020 in TWh
Source 10: Link
Domestic electricity consumption of selected countries vs. data centers in 2020 in TWh
29
73
124
153
208
250
266
286
URANIUM APPLICATIONS
END-USE URANIUM APPLICATIONS RISING FOR URANIUM AS MARKET IS EXPECTED TO REACH $1.8 BILLION IN 2028
According to a report from the Business Research Company, the uranium ore market is expected to continue substantial growth over the next several year. It is expected to grow from $1.11 billion in 2023 to $1.21 billion in 2024 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.5%.11
INCREASED INVESTMENT IN ENERGY
As of May 2024, a total of US $22 billion was invested in data centers worldwide following US $36 billion invested in 2023.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang predicts that companies could spend up to $1 trillion over the next four years to upgrade and expand data center infrastructure to meet the growing demand from AI applications.11
Source 11: Link
Uranium Market
NOTABLE INVESTMENTS TO SECURE ENERGYMADE AFTER MAY 2024, INCLUDE:
US $500M
Amazon
October 2024
US $1.6B
Microsoft
September 2024
US $1.6B
US Government
September 2024