Earnings Call Transcript - UEC Q4 2025

Operator, Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Uranium Energy Corp.'s Fiscal 2025 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Results Conference Call. Today's call will be hosted by Amir Adnani, President and CEO. Also joining for the Q&A session of today's call are Josephine Man, Chief Financial Officer; Scott Melbye, Executive Vice President; and Brent Berg, Senior Vice President, U.S. Operations. Please also note, today's event is being recorded. Today's call will run approximately 15 minutes for prepared remarks, followed by a Q&A. At this time, I'd like to turn the floor over to Amir Adnani, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Amir Adnani, President and CEO

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. For those not currently on the webcast, a presentation accompanying this conference call is available on the Presentations page of our website. Some of the commentary on today's call will include forward-looking statements, and I would direct everyone to review Slide 2 of the presentation, which includes important cautionary notes. Fiscal 2025 was a breakthrough year as we delivered initial low-cost production in Wyoming, with approximately 130,000 pounds, at a total cost of $36 per pound. We are now firmly in ramp-up mode with new Header Houses at Christensen Ranch online and Burke Hollow 90% complete, which will be America's next ISR mine. At the same time, we achieved substantial scale through the accretive acquisition of Rio Tinto's Sweetwater complex, establishing our third U.S. hub-and-spoke platform and expanding license capacity to 12.1 million pounds annually, making UEC the largest U.S. uranium company by estimated resources and total licensed production capacity. Our balance sheet remains strong, with $321 million in cash, inventory and equities, and no debt. We have a 100% unhedged strategy to capture upside as prices rise, and with the launch of UR&C, we are moving to become America's only vertically integrated uranium company, expanding downstream into refining and conversion. Our sales strategy for the first half of fiscal 2025 year resulted in $68.8 million in revenue and $24.5 million in gross profit from the sales of 810,000 pounds of U3O8 from our physical inventory at an average price above $82.50 per pound. In the second half of fiscal 2025, we have focused on building our inventory. We have 1,356,000 of U3O8 held in inventory, valued at $96.6 million at the uranium market price of $71.25 as at July 31, 2025. This inventory does not include the approximately 130,000 pounds of initial Wyoming production earlier discussed. Our 100% unhedged strategy maximizes our exposure to rising uranium prices, and we're committed to building strategic inventory to supply the U.S. strategic uranium reserve and other government programs and global market demand. The strong uranium price environment driven by global demand for nuclear energy and U.S. policy support positions us to capitalize on these opportunities. Moving to Slide 5 and zooming out. The last several years of over $1 billion in accretive acquisitions has built UEC into an enviable position, with global resources of over 230 million pounds in the measured and indicated categories and a further 100 million pounds in the inferred category. This does not include the Sweetwater complex. Furthermore, we boast the largest licensed production capacity in the U.S. with 12.1 million pounds per year across our plants. In our portfolio, we're focused on our 4 key pillars of production growth: Irigaray central processing plant or CPP in Wyoming, Hobson CPP in Texas, Sweetwater CPP, and the Roughrider project in Canada. We're actively advancing each of these growth pillars, which we'll speak about in further detail shortly. Following a string of bear market acquisitions, near cycle lows, we were able to establish UEC as the largest U.S. uranium company. This unparalleled scale has allowed us to identify the market need and opportunity for a single American company with scale and vertical integration, which means further growth into refining and conversion services. The launch of UR&C is designed to position UEC as the only U.S. company moving towards end-to-end capabilities in uranium mining, processing, refining, and conversion for delivery of natural UF6 to enrichment plants for LEU and HALEU production. The timing couldn't be better, as U.S. nuclear policy is undergoing a seismic shift. President Trump's executive orders to quadruple nuclear energy, combined with Energy Secretary Chris Wright's call to eliminate reliance on Russian uranium supplies have created unprecedented tailwinds for restoring the U.S. nuclear fuel cycle. The planned facility would be a centerpiece of this effort, ensuring a secure domestic supply chain for nuclear fuel. We're moving this project forward in stages, subject to contingencies, and look forward to providing updates as it progresses. Moving to Slide 8. We will start with the Irigaray hub, as we provide a bit more detail on the ongoing initiative at our 4 production pillars. A key driver of our Wyoming production growth was the commissioning of 2 new ISR mine units at Christensen Ranch; Header Houses 10-7 and 10-8. We've also made significant progress on wellfield development with an active well installation in Wellfield 11, delineation drilling completed in Wellfield 12, and extensions planned in wellfields 8 and 10. Construction of 4 additional header houses in Wellfield 11 is underway, with power pools placed and buildings being set on their foundations. These efforts will form the backbone of our future production plans, and as a result of this ramp-up, our Wyoming workforce has grown to 73 personnel, reflecting the scale of our operations in the Powder River Basin. Turning to South Texas. Our Burke Hollow project is on track to become America's next ISR mine. Construction is 90% complete, with a target completion date of November 2025. We're positioning for operational startup in December. This project represents a critical component of our South Texas hub-and-spoke production platform, which leverages our Hobson CPP. At Burke Hollow, we've made significant progress on the ion exchange facility and the first production area known as PAA-1. Key milestones include the completion of injection and recovery wells, the installation and loading of ion exchange columns with resin, and the drilling of a deep disposal well. The high-density polyethylene trunk line connecting the satellite facility to PAA-1 has been fused, pressure tested, and connected to the plant. Concurrently, 3 phase power is being advanced to the site, and equipment installation continues on schedule. With these advancements, our South Texas workforce has grown to 56 personnel, supporting our broader regional operations. Moving back to Wyoming, to focus on our newest asset, Sweetwater. As I mentioned previously, one of the most transformative events of fiscal 2025 was our $175 million acquisition of Rio Tinto's Sweetwater plant and Wyoming uranium assets, which established UEC's third U.S. hub-and-spoke production platform. This transaction added the Sweetwater plant, a conventional mill, one of only 3 in the U.S., with the project having approximately 175 million pounds of historic resources. The Sweetwater plant, with a license capacity of 4.1 million pounds of U3O8 per year, is a 3,000 ton per day mill that we plan to adapt for processing loaded ion exchange resins from ISR operations, unlocking significant synergies with our existing Wyoming assets. On August 1, 2025, the Sweetwater uranium complex was designated as a FAST 41 transparency project by the U.S. Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, following President Trump's executive order to increase American mineral production. This designation expedites ISR permitting for deposits on federal lands. Coming alongside the federal government, the Wyoming State government has agreed to match the permitting timelines, enabled through the FAST 41 program. With regards to project advancement at Sweetwater, we've initiated a new drilling program to define future ISR wellfield areas, and we subsequently aim to publish a technical report summary to incorporate these results, ensuring a comprehensive resource estimate. Now moving to Slide 11 to discuss Roughrider in more detail. In 2024, we drilled metallurgical holes across the west, east, and far east zones, collecting core to confirm metallurgical testing. Since January 2025, we have conducted bulk solvent extraction, yellowcake precipitation, tailings neutralization, and effluent treatment tests. These results will assist in completing our planned prefeasibility study for which we've issued requests for proposals to engage qualified firms. The PFS will be a critical step in advancing Roughrider toward development. Before I close out on our 2025 fiscal year results, I wanted to provide a brief overview of the current uranium market backdrop. As many of you know, we are entering into a supply squeeze where we have seen significant underinvestment in uranium mines over the last decade. Growing demand, coupled with this underinvestment, has led to a structural supply deficit that is projected to continue and widen, reaching a cumulative deficit of 1.7 billion pounds by 2045. In the U.S., we have seen unprecedented and bipartisan support for nuclear energy to combat this supply squeeze. Under the Trump administration, U.S. policy has shifted decisively toward restoring and expanding the domestic nuclear fuel cycle as part of the broader strategy to bolster energy independence, resilience, dominance, and national security. A key goal is to avoid reliance on foreign uranium, conversion, and enrichment services while supporting critical infrastructure including artificial intelligence and military needs. President Trump has set an ambitious target to quadruple U.S. nuclear energy capacity by 2050, surpassing the World Nuclear Association's tripling goal, and to advance roughly 10 new large-scale reactors by 2030. To strengthen the fuel cycle, the U.S. administration is invoking the Defense Production Act to enter voluntary agreements with domestic companies for enriched uranium and is considering federal offtake commitments to create secure markets for newly expanded or built facilities. At the same time, regulatory and institutional reforms aim to accelerate licensing, fast-track projects, enable advanced reactor deployment, and reduce dependence on foreign nuclear fuel sources. In summary, we have never seen a more positive policy environment for our industry. Amid this favorable policy backdrop, major technology companies are increasingly turning to nuclear energy as a reliable carbon-free power source to meet the soaring electricity demands of AI and large-scale data centers. This growing interest underscores nuclear's emerging role as a cornerstone of the U.S. digital infrastructure strategy. This includes major investments into nuclear energy from every hyperscaler, with the latest being NVIDIA's investment into TerraPower in Wyoming to support the Natrium reactor. We're now witnessing an unprecedented flow of private capital into nuclear projects, from hyperscaler power purchase agreements to advanced reactor investments, reinforcing the critical need for U.S. origin uranium and conversion capacity. To wrap up, fiscal 2025 was a year of execution and transformation for UEC. We achieved initial production in Wyoming, advanced Burke Hollow to near completion, and expanded our U.S. platform through the Sweetwater acquisition. The launch of UR&C is designed to position us as a leader in the U.S. nuclear fuel cycle, and our strong balance sheet provides the flexibility to execute on our growth strategy. With unprecedented policy support and a tightening uranium market, we feel UEC is uniquely positioned to meet the growing demand for secure domestic uranium supply. We're excited about the opportunities ahead and look forward to delivering further value to our shareholders. Before I turn it back to the operator, a couple of points. First of all, today's call is scheduled to end around noon Eastern time. If we don't get to your question, please don't hesitate to reach out to our Investor Relations team, and we'll be happy to follow up directly. Second, please note that I'm joined today by Josephine Man, our Chief Financial Officer; Scott Melbye, our Executive Vice President; and Brent Berg, our Senior Vice President of U.S. Operations. Together, the 4 of us are backed by a UEC team with more than 900 years of combined experience in the uranium industry. That depth of experience is what drives our daily execution across operations, finance, and strategy. With that, we'll open the call to questions. Operator, please go ahead.

Operator, Operator

And our first question today comes from Brian Lee from Goldman Sachs.

Brian Lee, Analyst

Thanks for hosting this call. I know there's a lot of focus around your ramp-up efforts here and moving from kind of asset status to producer status. So helpful to kind of start to see the early milestones and what's happening from a production standpoint. So kind of really my first question, kudos on the production and the cost realization here in fiscal '25. I know you might not be ready to give full guidance metrics, Amir, but can you at least give us some sense of what target ranges are potentially reasonable outcomes as you think about the next 12 months? You're going from 130,000 pounds to Christensen Ranch sounds like it's accelerating. You have a lot of early-stage successful milestones, it sounds like, at Hobson and Sweetwater. So is it fair to say we're going to still be in the hundreds of thousands of pounds of production in '26? Or could we be thinking about even 1 million pounds plus? Sort of what are kind of the low and high-end outcomes that you could consider just based on how the next 12 months goes, both from a production standpoint, but also from a market price and demand standpoint?

Amir Adnani, President and CEO

Brian, thanks for that question. When you look at these results and the ramp-up, the bulk of production that we're reporting here came from mine units or header houses 10-7 and 10-8, which, as we disclosed, really only came online in the last few months, 10-7 in April and 10-8 in June. So you can see the new header houses providing fresh output and production are definitely putting us on an uptrend. Burke Hollow is going to be another source of production growth, and clearly, that's going to, as we indicated, be completed around, in terms of construction completion, by November and the operational startup in December. So any way you look at this, Brian, production is ramping up and is going to continue to ramp up, and for context, Christensen Ranch and Burke Hollow are only 2 of 7 fully permitted satellite projects we have in the pipeline that can support ongoing production growth, and that does not include the Sweetwater complex, which with this fast-tracking news and development hopefully, we could get the permit amendments necessary to conduct ISR at Sweetwater and bring that project online as well. When you look at our total license capacity of over 12 million pounds per year and our significant resources, you can see that this company's goal and ambitions are to build a multimillion pound per year uranium producer. And that's a plan and objective that we'll look to achieve over the coming years, very much in lock-step with market conditions, pricing, and government policy, particularly developments we're seeing in the U.S. around strategic uranium reserve. This fiscal year, we did not see the strongest uranium prices. In fact, we ended July 31 around $70 per pound. That was a signal to us that it was a great time to build and scale operations, but not to necessarily be making sales. And you saw that we intentionally held back production for that exact reason. You saw overnight the uranium prices are actually over $80 per pound. So just to finish the answer to your question there, Brian. This is our first call of many calls to come in terms of earnings calls. As we have more of these calls, we look forward to more interactions to demonstrate and show how the production ramp-up is progressing. You could say that in 12 months, we've delivered on 2 or 3 key takeaways: low cost, achieved low cost coming out of the gate at a time where we've seen struggling operational restarts out there. UEC and these operations demonstrate that we've got the efficiency and personnel to deliver low-cost production. These numbers we've reported today are amongst the lowest cost reported by any company in the last 1 or 2 years using U.S. ISR or ISR in general. Volumes will increase as we build additional header houses and satellite projects in quarters and years to come. We're not limited by the long delays associated with permitting. So we're in the driver's seat with what we're doing.

Brian Lee, Analyst

Super helpful. I appreciate the comprehensive answer. Maybe just one more and I'll pass it on. You alluded to government policy. There's been a lot of headline developments. I know you yourself, Amir, spent a lot of time in D.C. So I wanted to touch upon a couple of things there. Any thoughts you can share on state of the state with respect to, there's been talk about a strategic uranium reserve in the U.S., anything you can share on what you're expecting timing, impact wise from potential Section 232 as it relates to uranium? And then thirdly, on this UR&C, I know it's still early stage, but there's probably multiple potential outcomes for how you move forward. What's your thought process in structuring that venture to include some sort of either government funding investment, offtake? Like, what are the different government involvement exercises that could potentially play into that? I know a lot of investors are focused on what happened with MP and I think just overnight with Lithium Americas. So how does UR&C and UEC potentially fit into that? And how are you trying to structure that with government involvement?

Amir Adnani, President and CEO

Brian, I'll tackle that question in 2 ways. First, with respect to the UR&C. That's our U.S. Uranium Refining & Conversion Corp. initiative. Let me hand it over to my colleague Scott Melbye to speak on some government policies that we're seeing developing in D.C. and on the Hill. Look, we've identified substantial bottlenecks in uranium refining and conversion, especially in the U.S., but even globally, if we're to see a doubling, tripling, or quadrupling of nuclear energy, as President Trump is calling for, not only is the current capacity not enough to meet current demand, but it's going to have to expand substantially. We're looking at similar models across the world. You see how Chinese and Russian state-owned companies that we compete against operate in a vertically integrated way. They don't just mine uranium in isolation or convert uranium in isolation; it's done under one banner. We're trying to create that American champion that can have end-to-end capabilities, which frankly has never existed before. If we have ambitions to compete with Russia and China, and we're going to quadruple nuclear energy, that type of business model is necessary. This initiative aligns with government policy on multiple levels; uranium and nuclear fuel have been identified as national security issues by the Department of Commerce and Department of Energy that need to be addressed. Timely, we've started this initiative over the last year to year and a half. We have that first-mover advantage and the vertical integration is a key differentiator. We’re the only company in the U.S. tackling this issue end-to-end and have structured this to address partnerships from strategic involvement, whether it's government, utilities, or other strategic partners. As we have meetings and discussions in the coming weeks and months, we'll have more updates and information to share.

Scott Melbye, Executive Vice President

Great. Thank you, Amir. Brian, with regards to the strategic uranium reserve, I think we were encouraged by Secretary Wright's comments over in Vienna at the IAEA meetings, where he clearly mentioned that the strategic uranium reserve is a policy we should pursue to ensure energy security, national security, and build up our domestic stockpile. As uranium producers in America, we've lobbied heavily for this. We think the strategic uranium reserve is good policy where taxpayer dollars could support U.S. origin uranium reserves, serving both utility emergency supplies as well as defense programs. We're also looking forward to the end of Russian imports, with the Russian uranium ban fully kicking in at the end of 2027. We're pushing hard to extend that ban to China. We’ve seen concerning import-export data between Russia, China and back to the United States indicating potential trade law violations. On critical mineral designations, President Trump already considers uranium a critical mineral and has issued executive orders accordingly. The executive order to revitalize the industrial base to support a quadrupling of nuclear power in the U.S. focuses on the fuel cycle, uranium conversion, and enrichment. One significant development has been the fast-track permitting, the FAST 41 transparency dashboard. The Trump admin is stating that if a federal project has been held up, it can be submitted for review and put on the dashboard with defined review timelines. Uranium as a critical mineral is essential for accelerating production.

Operator, Operator

And our next question comes from Heiko Ihle from H.C. Wainwright.

Heiko Ihle, Analyst

That was a very comprehensive answer here before, so one of my questions has already been answered. But Amir and Scott, maybe if you want to provide a bit of color on the conversion business, which has obviously been well received. You want to provide some color on the vertical integration that should allow you guys to go more downstream with that, please?

Amir Adnani, President and CEO

Heiko, thanks for that question. Again, the business model around vertical integration is a battle-tested model that we see in the industry. This is how the French, Chinese, and Russians operate the nuclear fuel cycle for maximum resiliency. The conversion business and downstream activities from uranium mining improve and expand margins. The margin structure is different downstream from uranium mining than mining itself. Controlling both mining and processing assets is crucial for UEC, especially with the largest resource base and licensed production capacity ever assembled in the U.S. This combination positions UEC strategically and addresses the bottlenecking in conversion. We believe the bottleneck in conversion has adversely affected uranium prices, preventing them from reaching all-time highs. Conversely, conversion enrichment prices are near their all-time highs. Our approach provides diverse revenue sources while developing ways to deliver nuclear fuel supply, enhancing the strategic value of the company.

Heiko Ihle, Analyst

Fair enough. And you guys have significant experience in the uranium space. Building on some of your comments earlier, do you want to walk us through where you see geopolitical factors affecting the industry? Demand for North American uranium, especially from your South Texas operations, is through the roof. But could you provide insight into key factors that the market might be underappreciating or not fully grasping?

Amir Adnani, President and CEO

I will address this in two parts. Recently, a premium has emerged for uranium that can be delivered to buyers in the U.S., specifically when it's stored in the country. The Department of Energy paid over a 20% premium to acquire uranium for its strategic reserve. This situation highlights the U.S. reliance on foreign uranium, which creates opportunities for domestic suppliers. Initially, domestic supply commands a premium due to its limited availability. As domestic production, conversion, and enrichment increase, market prices should align more closely with global rates. Currently, the U.S. represents the most significant undersupplied market for nuclear fuel, housing over 90 operational reactors, making it the largest market worldwide. However, it entirely depends on foreign imports. Additionally, the ban on Russian uranium will take effect in December 2027, which is approaching rapidly. Developing uranium mining, conversion, and enrichment capabilities takes years. We have initiated efforts now to become a domestic supplier as this ban is implemented. We anticipate seeing a premium on U.S. mining and conversion sources.

Scott Melbye, Executive Vice President

Heiko, the global structural deficit puts us in an interesting position. The world consumes about 50 million pounds more than it produces annually. The structural deficit is only growing as we recently observed the nuclear growth outlook, forecasting nuclear power to double by 2045. If we aim for tripling nuclear power in line with President Trump's initiatives, we need a significant increase in new production. Notably, the world's largest producer of uranium today is Kazakhstan, supplying over 40% of global production. Kazakhstan's proximity to Russia and China could lead to strategic risks. It’s critical for the U.S. to develop uranium resources in stable western jurisdictions, especially given the significant underdevelopment of U.S. resources. The United States Geological Survey estimates over 1 billion pounds of known and likely uranium resources in the Western United States. We're excited about the revitalization happening in the U.S., and we’re at the forefront experiencing remarkable opportunities.

Operator, Operator

And our next question comes from Alexander Pearce from BMO.

Alexander Pearce, Analyst

Amit, Scott, and team, so you flagged earlier that you're working on upgrades for increasing the pace of drawing and drumming uranium. Is it fair to say this is currently the bottleneck for the project, the drumming side? You mentioned you're bringing on new wellfields, and that seems to be going very well. But can you give us a bit more detail on the changes you're making within those upgrades? And how much do you expect to spend? And when do you expect to complete those upgrades, so we can expect the uptick in drummed outlook?

Amir Adnani, President and CEO

Alex, thank you for that. I'm going to invite Brent Berg to speak to that as well. The intentional strategy we had on holding back inventory and not needing to make deliveries allowed us to make upgrades to the equipment on the processing side of the plant. We did not see any bottlenecks currently. We're increasing capacity for when we do go into further ramp-up mode. Keeping the uranium in precipitated form is as good as being dried and drummed. Hence, I’ll let Brent provide further details on the thickeners and calciners.

Brent Berg, Senior Vice President, U.S. Operations

Thanks, Amir. Alex, earlier this fiscal year, refurbishment activities were undertaken at the Christensen Ranch satellite ion exchange plant, enabling continuous 24/7 operation at design capacity. We've been rebuilding one of the two thickeners, which is essential for storing precipitated yellowcake before drying and packaging. The upgrades include replacing internal components with new parts, and the refurbishment of the calciner will increase throughput of dried yellowcake. These upgrades are ongoing and will significantly enhance operational efficiency moving forward.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Katie Lachapelle from Canaccord Genuity.

Katie Lachapelle, Analyst

Most of my questions have already been answered, but maybe just one more on the inventory side. You ended the year with quite a considerable amount of inventory, having deliberately held back some material in the second half. As you said, the decision to not sell was due to low prices, but we've since seen prices rise about 15% since the end of your last quarter. So how are you guys thinking about inventory build going forward and the timing of future sales? Is there a particular price point, say, north of $80 or $85, that you would look to monetize some of this existing inventory? Or is the plan to continue to build inventory and hope for even higher prices?

Amir Adnani, President and CEO

Katie, thank you for that question. The 2 things go hand in hand. The balance sheet, with over $320 million of available liquidity and no debt, allows us to hold back inventory over a price that we found unacceptable. Similarly, we've seen an interesting pop in uranium price as well; we're back over $80 this morning. However, we have our focus on pending developments out of Washington. Comments made about boosting the strategic uranium reserve and expected recommendations from the Department of Commerce on Section 232 investigations create an environment where we appreciate holding onto U.S. warehouse uranium inventory. There is no specific price point today for selling. We intend to be aware of developments in the market, particularly emerging from Washington, and we’re prepared for any strong momentum.

Scott Melbye, Executive Vice President

Yes, Katie, we love our flexibility and have the luxury of being able to hold. We've stayed uncommitted and unhedged, allowing us to enter the market with a stronger hand.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Joseph Reagor from ROTH Capital Partners.

Joseph Reagor, Analyst

Amir and team, first, just a point of clarity. On the 130,000 pounds you produced at Christensen Ranch, you referred to it as dried and drummed; is it not considered part of your inventory because there’s one final finishing step? Or is it like some companies where they separate their inventory from the inventory at a converter, etc.?

Amir Adnani, President and CEO

Joe, it's the latter. We wanted to clearly distinguish between purchased inventory and production-related inventory. But Josephine, did you want to add to that point as well?

Josephine Man, Chief Financial Officer

Yes. The uranium concentrate we mentioned is included in the breakdown of inventory on the balance sheet, so that is part of the uranium concentrate from extraction.

Joseph Reagor, Analyst

Okay. I just want to ensure I understood correctly. On UR&C, Amir, can you walk us through kind of how you see potential news flow as you advance that over the next 12 months? What can we, as investors, look for as far as updates?

Amir Adnani, President and CEO

Joe, in no particular order, one track involves engineering work we're continuing with Fluor and the reports and findings that will become updates. We’re also developing our dedicated team around the refining and conversion initiatives, and as updates come, we’ll share those. Many discussions are underway regarding government actions, offtakers, strategic partnerships, and investors. Each of those can potentially provide updates on progress, making this initiative timely and exciting.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Kristian Koschany from National Bank Capital Markets.

Kristian Koschany, Analyst

I’m asking on behalf of Mohamed, who is on a site visit right now. I was just wondering if you could provide color on the cash costs and total costs, specifically what's included in the noncash costs and how we might expect cash costs to progress as Christensen Ranch continues, and how the full rebuild of the yellowcake thickener and improvements to calciner might change things in the future?

Amir Adnani, President and CEO

Thank you for that question. At a high level, our low-cost production numbers are noteworthy, leading the industry in terms of efficiency. I'll let Josephine provide deeper insights into cash costs and noncash details, but the upgrades made to thickeners and calciners should not impact future production cost numbers; these upgrades are focused on expanding capacity.

Josephine Man, Chief Financial Officer

Generally, the total cash cost per pound comprises labor, chemical, utility costs at Christensen Ranch and Irigaray processing plants. The noncash production cost comes from depreciation of mineral property acquisition costs allocated to Christensen Ranch. The noncash portion remains steady as we amortize on a straight-line basis. Cash costs are expected to remain quite stable compared to Q4 of fiscal 2025, influenced by production volume expectations in upcoming quarters.

Operator, Operator

And our next question comes from Justin Chan from SCP Resource Finance.

Justin Chan, Analyst

Brent, I want to thank you for your time last week. Just a lot has been asked, but given your market-driven strategy, which has played out really well, you haven't had contracts yet to deliver into or are looking at the market. I'm curious how you plan the Header House ramp-up and operational plans over the next year with Texas and Wyoming coming online. How do you see things, balancing ramping up quickly versus seeing where the market goes?

Amir Adnani, President and CEO

Justin, thank you for that, and thank you for touring our Wyoming operations last week. I’ll give an overview and then hand it over to Brent. Key considerations include the uranium price, which, just as we've seen enrichment prices near their all-time highs, we expect uranium to eventually reflect the same. A healthy supply-demand fundamental may push uranium prices higher, augmenting our ability to leverage our capabilities and resources effectively. Also, as the industry has been quiet, we're facing human resource challenges across the board. Our workforce task has been growing, and attracting talent continues to be essential for production ramp-up. Each new project also fosters experience, giving our team valuable knowledge crucial for future operations.

Brent Berg, Senior Vice President, U.S. Operations

UEC is progressing with our production ramp-up. Mine development continues in Wellfield 11 at Christensen Ranch with 4 header houses currently under construction, and well installations nearing completion. Surface construction is on schedule for additional fresh production. In Burke Hollow, the project is 90% complete; initial wellfield setups are operational, and final constructions are being completed. I'm excited about the skilled personnel on our team and look forward to growing the team and ramping up production in both states.

Justin Chan, Analyst

That was very comprehensive. Maybe just one follow-up. If prices ramp up or if government actions create a U.S.-specific price, what would change from your operational plan if uranium was at $120 right now? How would that next year look different?

Amir Adnani, President and CEO

In simple terms, the rate of development and wellfield delineation would accelerate, as well as ramping up construction activities. We need flexibility and responsiveness to market dynamics, and if uranium prices increase, we will certainly adjust accordingly.

Justin Chan, Analyst

Given HR constraints, do you have a sense of how much faster you can proceed?

Amir Adnani, President and CEO

We do, and we've noticed that our position in the industry is acting as a magnet for talent; individuals currently or formerly in the industry see the opportunity and want to join UEC for the promising future we present.

Justin Chan, Analyst

For instance, would doubling your rollout rate be conceivable within a year if prices support it? Just trying to gauge expectations.

Amir Adnani, President and CEO

Our goals certainly aim for that. We hope the market conditions support heightened efforts. The subdued prices previously were frustrating, but we’re encouraged to see improvements recently.

Operator, Operator

And ladies and gentlemen, with that, we will conclude today's question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for any closing remarks.

Amir Adnani, President and CEO

Thank you. Fiscal 2025 was truly a landmark year for UEC. We're just getting started. With our operational achievements, strategic acquisitions, and the launch of UR&C, we envision a platform to lead America's nuclear fuel cycle. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the quarters ahead. Thank you, and have a great day.

Operator, Operator

And ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's conference call and presentation. We do thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.