Uranerz Energy’s Nichols Ranch starts production

Uranerz Energy (TSX: URZ; NYSE-Arca: URZ) has become the newest member of a small club of uranium producers after its first uranium mine, Nichols Ranch, received final clearance from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and began production on April 15.

The start-up of the in situ recovery (ISR) operation in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, about 40 km north of Cameco Corp.'s (TSX: CCO; NYSE: CCJ) Smith Ranch uranium conversion facility, comes less than a year after Ur-Energy (TSX: URE; NYSE: URG) kicked off production at its Lost Creek ISR mine in August 2013.

"It's a huge milestone for the company, but what's really exciting is we are the newest uranium producer in America and who knows when the next one is going to be," Derek Iwanaka, Uranerz's manager of investors relations, says in an interview. "It's not an easy thing. There are plenty of barriers ... which is why there are only a handful of producers in the world."

Read the entire story at NorthernMiner.com/news/uranerz