Processing operations at Energy Resources of Australia's Ranger mine ended today in accordance with legislative and regulatory requirements. The mine, which is in the Northern Territory, was Australia's longest continually operating uranium producer.

US company Energy Fuels Inc will become a commercial rare earths supplier in 2021, having entered into a three-year supply agreement to acquire a minimum of 2500 tons per year of natural monazite sands from which it will also recover uranium at its White Mesa mill in Utah. Separately, Vancouver-based International Consolidated Uranium Inc said it had been attracted to its newly announced acquisition of the Laguna Salada uranium project in Argentina by the by-product vanadium.

Production at the Cigar Lake uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan, Canada, will be temporarily suspended over the coming weeks due to the increasing risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Cameco announced today. The pandemic earlier prompted a five-month suspension of production from the Cigar Lake mine from March.

Ukraine's Ministry of Energy yesterday held a meeting with representatives from Energoatom, state uranium mining concerns, trade unions, people's deputies and others to resolve issues related to the production and supply of uranium from the country's uranium mines. According to the national Ukrinform news agency, all uranium mining by state enterprise VostokGOK was suspended on 7 December.

Industrias Nucleares do Brasil has started mining uranium from the new open-pit Engenho mine at Caetité, in Brazil's Bahia state. It is hoped that resumption of uranium production at the site will make the country self-sufficient in fuel for its nuclear power reactors. A ceremony was held yesterday at the mine site, during which a detonation was carried out, symbolising the beginning of open pit mining in a new area, the Engenho mine.

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories has completed the excavation and transfer of historic low-level radioactive waste away from the Lake Ontario shoreline to a new long-term waste management facility. The waste removal marks a milestone for the Port Hope Area Initiative, which CNL is implementing through its Historic Waste Program Management Office on behalf of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global uranium production, adding to supply curtailments that have occurred in the industry for many years, Cameco said in its quarterly update yesterday. The risk to uranium supply is greater than the risk to demand that over time is expected to create a renewed focus on security of supply, the company said.

Resuming operation of the Kayelekera uranium mine in Malawi will cost an estimated USD50 million, a restart scoping study has concluded. Australian-based exploration company Lotus Resources Ltd bought the mine - currently in care and maintenance - from Paladin Energy earlier this year. Lotus says it now plans to advance to a restart feasibility study.

A proposed amendment to Spain's draft climate change and energy transition bill that would prohibit the exploration and extraction of uranium is unconstitutional, says Berkeley Energia. The Australian-based company is at an advanced stage in licensing its Salamanca uranium mine.

Rusburmash has completed geophysical surveys at the Dobrovolnoye uranium deposit in the Zverinogolovsky district of the Kurgan region of Russia and JSC Dalur has now started the construction of a pilot site for in-situ leaching of uranium there.

Most respondents to UxC's annual summer survey agreed that the uranium market has so far managed the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic effectively, and is proving robust, despite some initial issues with mine production. There is general consensus that the crisis will not harm the future of nuclear power, UxC said.

US President Donald Trump has declared a "national emergency" to deal with the threat to the USA's security, foreign policy and economy from its "undue reliance" on supplies of critical minerals from "foreign adversaries". The country must also expand and strengthen domestic mining and processing capacity for all minerals to guard against the possibility of supply chain disruptions, he said.