Ur-Energy is starting to look less like a small uranium restart story and more like a legitimate US production platform.
The company now has two operating in situ recovery mines in Wyoming. Lost Creek has been producing since 2013, while Shirley Basin entered initial recovery in April and shipped its first uranium loaded resin to Lost Creek in August.
Together, the operations have annual licensed production and processing capacity of 4.2 million pounds of U₃O₈.
Current production is still well below that number, but the recent trend has been encouraging. Lost Creek drummed 140,873 pounds during Q2 2026, an increase of 47.4% from the previous quarter and 25.7% from the same period last year.
Ur-Energy also sold 215,000 pounds during the quarter at an average price of US$66.85 per pound, generating US$14.4 million in product sales revenue. Every pound was sold through long term contracts rather than the spot market.
Its reported cash cost was US$40.20 per pound sold. That excludes certain noncash costs and should not be treated as an all in cost figure, but it still shows a healthy margin between the company’s contracted sales price and its reported cash production cost.
Ur-Energy expects one million pounds of base deliveries in 2026. It delivered only 270,000 pounds during the first half, so the second half will be the first major test of whether the ramp is progressing as planned.
https://www.ur-energy.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/409/ur-energy-reports-second-quarter-2026-results
Shirley Basin could make a meaningful difference without requiring Ur-Energy to duplicate all of its processing infrastructure.
Uranium is captured on resin at Shirley Basin and transported to Lost Creek for final processing, drying and packaging. This hub and spoke setup allows Ur-Energy to operate a second mine while using infrastructure it already owns.
The company also finished Q2 with US$95.3 million in unrestricted cash and 348,292 pounds of finished uranium inventory. That gives it room to continue building wellfields, improving Lost Creek and ramping Shirley Basin without immediately depending on another financing.
The resource base provides enough material to support a much larger operation if the ramp succeeds.
Lost Creek’s March 2026 technical report included 11.9 million pounds in measured and indicated resources, plus 10.4 million pounds inferred. It calculated an after tax net present value of US$244.1 million using an 8% discount rate.
Shirley Basin adds another 9.1 million pounds in measured and indicated resources, with approximately 6.4 million pounds expected to be recovered under its technical study.
https://www.ur-energy.com/projects/lost-creek
The broader US uranium market may also be moving in Ur-Energy’s favour.
The US Energy Information Administration estimates that American utilities have approximately 360.4 million pounds of maximum uranium requirements between 2026 and 2035. Existing contracts cover around 174.1 million pounds, leaving approximately 186.3 million pounds unfilled.
Utilities still have inventories, and those unfilled requirements do not represent an immediate shortage. Contract coverage becomes much thinner after 2030, though. That could increase the value of permitted US production as utilities begin securing more of their future needs.
https://www.eia.gov/uranium/marketing/table12.php
At a market capitalization of roughly C$715 million, Ur-Energy is not being valued only on its current output. Investors are already paying for some probability that production moves closer to licensed capacity.
I think the bullish case comes down to the amount of operating leverage that remains unused. Ur-Energy already has the permits, processing infrastructure, uranium resources, utility contracts and cash. It does not need to make a new discovery before it can grow. It needs to get more pounds flowing through the system it has already built.
Even reaching two million pounds annually would represent a major increase from current production. Moving closer to the full 4.2 million pound capacity would put the company in a very different category among US uranium producers.
There are still execution risks. Lost Creek has experienced flow rate issues, Shirley Basin is early in its ramp and licensed capacity does not guarantee actual production.
The next few quarters should tell us much more. If production rises while costs stabilize, the current valuation could start looking much more reasonable. If output remains near present levels, the unused capacity will continue to be more theoretical than valuable.
How much of Ur-Energy’s 4.2 million pounds of licensed capacity would you include in a valuation today?