Firms launch physical uranium buying for small investors using blockchain

By Eric Onstad

LONDON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - A blockchain platform and a uranium trading company launched a marketplace on Tuesday to allow small investors to buy physical uranium, hoping to boost spot liquidity in the niche commodity.

Uranium has seen a surge in interest from investors and a spike in prices in recent years as miners trimmed output and utilities sought new supplies of mineral that fuels nuclear power.

A surge in electricity demand for artificial intelligence $(AI)$ data centres is also spurring new interest in nuclear plants.

Previously, retail investors could get exposure to the metal by buying shares in mining companies or funds that hold inventories of uranium.

Now they will be able to buy small amounts of physical uranium that will be tokenised on a blockchain and stored in a depository, with the tokens representing a share of the underlying asset.

"This is the democratisation of uranium so everyone can buy it," said Nick Clarke, founder of private trading company Curzon Uranium.

Unlike gold or platinum, which is sold in small bars to investors, the minimum lot for buying uranium oxide or yellowcake is 50,000 pounds, which would cost over $4 million.

The new trading website (www.uranium.io) uses technology from open-source blockchain platform Tezos, with supplies sourced by Curzon.

The physical uranium will be stored in facilities owned by Canadian producer Cameco.

Small investors can get exposure to physical uranium through funds such as Sprott U_u.TO or Yellowcake YCA.L, but those shares trade on the stock market and can diverge from the uranium price.

The metal has captured investors' attention after spot prices UXXc1 doubled over 10 months to a peak of $106 a pound in January as top producers Kazatomprom KZAP.KZ and Cameco CCO.TO cut production guidance. Prices have eased since then to $77.

Nuclear energy has seen more interest to help countries cut their carbon emissions, while several deals have been sealed this year to source power from nuclear plants for AI data centres, including by Google, Amazon and Microsoft.

(Reporting by Eric OnstadEditing by Mark Potter)

((eric.onstad@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 7093; Twitter https://twitter.com/reutersEricO; Reuters Messaging: eric.onstad.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))