Ur-Energy reaches full operation at Shirley Basin as buyer priorities shift to supply security
Shirley Basin flips to full operation
Ur-Energy's second-quarter call delivered a long-awaited milestone: the Shirley Basin satellite is now fully operational, with six of ten production columns online and the first resin shipment imminent. “Today, I am excited to share the plant at Shirley is now in full operation.” — Matthew D. Gili, CEO · 2026-08-11 The company captured 10.6k pounds at the facility during limited operations, but the real inflection comes from the hub-and-spoke model that will leverage Lost Creek's processing capacity. This progress is a direct outcome of the Development costs that have been running $12-15 million per quarter, a pace management expects to keep for at least another year.
Unclogging the production constraint
At Lost Creek, the sand filtration system installed in the quarter has already improved flow rates from roughly 2,500 to over 3,200 gallons per minute. “After the sand filter, in a similar period, we have been averaging around 3.2 thousand to 3.3 thousand.” — Matthew D. Gili, CEO · 2026-08-11 This moves the bottleneck downstream, into injection-well management—a classic theory-of-constraints progression. The sand filtration system is now the linchpin for sustaining higher drummed volumes, and it complements the company's continued wastewater treatment investments.
Buyer psychology: from price to surety
The most striking commentary concerned contract conversations. CEO Matt Gili described a market that has flipped from adversarial price negotiation to a focus on supply security:
Utilities are even signaling they'd skip the formal RFP process—"if you have pounds you want to commit, let us know." The company chose not to sign new long-term contracts this year, preferring to keep exposure to rising prices. This contrasts with the prior quarter's tone, where “We are seeing a lot of activity from U.S. utilities in the first quarter regarding contracting future uranium supply.” — Matt Gilley, President and CEO · 2026-05-11 The shift reinforces surety of supply as the dominant pricing driver.We are seem to be entering into a series of discussions with buyers that are much more focused on surety of supply as opposed to negotiating the last $0.50 per off of a price.
Leveraging fixed costs
Cash costs came in at $40.20 per pound, and management reiterated that uranium mining is an 80% fixed-cost business. “in an ISR operation, your costs are incredibly fixed. So it is really a function of pounds drummed, or pounds sold.” — Matt Gilley, CEO · 2026-03-11 This creates a direct leverage to production ramp—every additional pound drops the unit cost. With $87 million in net cash after last quarter's raise, the company has the runway to fund both Lost Creek optimization and the Shirley Basin build-out without dilutive equity.
A district-scale vision
Beyond the two operating assets, Ur-Energy is advancing a pipeline of satellite opportunities—Lost Creek South (120-hole exploration program), Lost Soldier (technical report due year-end), and North Castle. The goal is to replicate the hub-and-spoke model across Wyoming's Great Divide Basin. growth pipeline remains the umbrella theme, with management positioning as a consolidation partner. The company's contracted delivery book—1.3 million pounds this year, reduced by a 300,000-pound deferral to manage ramp risk—still supports revenue visibility through 2029.