Wyoming
Wyoming-Based Ur-Energy Offers $60M Stock Sale To Grow Uranium…
Ur-Energy Inc. said Friday that it’s raising $60 million in a public offering of stock to help pay for possible acquisitions of mining claims in the fragmented uranium industry and to ramp up development of mining projects.
Much of the U.S. uranium boom is happening in Wyoming.
“We are preparing our war chest so that we are ready for any opportunities. There is nothing that we can discuss publicly,” said John Cash, chairman, CEO and president of Casper-based Ur-Energy.
“There certainly is room for consolidation and efficiencies at the mine and at the corporate level,” Cash told Cowboy State Daily. “We think there are some strong possibilities for consolidation in the industry.”
The chief executive declined to discuss potential takeover targets or say whether his company had been approached with an offer.
“To be clear, we have no direct line or sight on anything. We are just being prepared in case anything becomes available,” Cash said.
In a filing made Friday, the company mentioned that it “frequently evaluates” acquisition opportunities to expand its portfolio of uranium projects.
“We are currently bidding on an acquisition opportunity involving a significant nonproducing uranium asset in the United States, although there is no certainty that we will continue to pursue that bid or be successful in acquiring the asset,” the filing stated.
No other details were made available.
Consolidation Picks Up
Evidence of consolidation in the uranium space in Wyoming and globally is beginning to emerge.
For instance, Australian-based Paladin Energy Ltd.’s $1.14 billion all-stock takeover of Canada’s Fission Uranium Corp. would make the combined entity the third largest publicly traded uranium producer in the world.
The combination, which was announced last month, is expected to close in the fall.
The business would rank the combined Paladin and Fission Uranium as third in output behind top producer Kazatomprom, which is controlled by the government of Kazakhstan, and Canada’s Cameco Corp., which has uranium positions throughout Wyoming and in the eastern neighboring state of Nebraska.
Kazatomprom is the world’s largest producer and seller of uranium.
Cameco’s facilities include the Smith Ranch-Highland in situ uranium mine near Glenrock and a satellite in situ uranium mine near Wright, as well as the Crow Butte in situ uranium mine near Crawford, Nebraska.
In-situ mining involves drilling with water derricks that can go down a few hundred feet into a bed of porous sandstone where there’s a very thick layer of uranium deposits to tap.
Cameco also operates uranium processing factories at Smith Ranch-Highland and Crow Butte where they can produce up to 7.5 million pounds of uranium yellowcake each year that, after further processing elsewhere, becomes fuel for nuclear reactors.
Besides the Paladin and Fission Uranium deal, two smaller uranium mining companies based in Canada merged in recent months.
ATHA Energy and Latitude Uranium completed their merger in March while IsoEnergy combined with Consolidated Uranium in December.
‘Little On The Larger Size’
Cash told Cowboy State Daily that his company’s $60 million stock offering is “a little on the larger size,” but there are larger mining companies that have raised several hundreds of millions of dollars in the uranium space.
Though smaller than Ur-Energy’s raise, Canadian Global Atomic Corp. made a $14.5 million (U.S.) stock sale to a group of private investors earlier this week.
The money is needed for a uranium project in the Republic of the Niger.
Over the past year, there has been a boom of uranium mining companies rushing to Wyoming to open mining and production facilities as the U.S. government has stepped in to embrace the industry’s strategic importance and push a “green revolution” agenda, according to Ur-Energy.
Ur-Energy anticipates using some of the proceeds from the public offering of 57.2 million shares to supplement working capital for the continued ramp-up at its Lost Creek mining and production site in Wyoming’s Red Desert and development at its Shirley Basin mine in central Wyoming.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, uranium companies rushed to Wyoming while others took their dormant operations out of caretaker status as part of a broader effort in the industry to develop an alternative enriched domestic uranium fuel supply.
The invasion of Ukraine led to growing nervousness in the U.S that the nation was relying too heavily on foreign sources, especially since Russia already was a major fuel supplier.
The U.S. took steps to alleviate over-dependence on Russia should the fuel supply line get cut.
Wyoming’s senior Sen. John Barrasso spearheaded an effort to ban Russian uranium imports that was signed into law by President Joe Biden in May.
Companies like Ur-Energy are being closely watched to see what kind of impact the resurgence in the industry might have on their bottom lines.
Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.
CASPER, Wyo. — High school athletics in Wyoming could see some drastic changes in the coming years following legislative changes to the state’s education budget, the Wyoming High School Activities Association recently announced in a statement.
According to the WHSAA, Wyoming school districts are facing a projected $3.9 million shortfall in activities funding, forcing officials to consider significant cuts to high school sports and extracurricular programs.
The WHSAA shared details regarding a new “silo” funding model implemented by the Legislature, stating that the recalibrated block grant model reduced funding for student activities and extra-duty responsibilities from $46.3 million to $42.4 million, an approximately 8.4% decrease statewide.
WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson said the restructuring also restricts district access to an additional $76.2 million in previously flexible funding.
“A significant portion of the [April 28 WHSAA Board of Directors] meeting was dedicated to discussing the projected funding shortfall,” Wilson wrote.
The WHSAA is weighing several strategies to address rising costs with fewer resources. Proposed changes include eliminating regional tournaments and reducing the number of teams qualifying for state events from eight to four; limiting wrestling to two classes and restricting track and field state participants to the top 16 marks; making cuts to soccer, indoor track and field, Nordic and Alpine skiing, swimming and diving, spring golf and tennis; and reducing in-person speech and debate events by half and centrally locating All-State Music events to minimize travel. The board also recommended increasing gate admission or implementing student participation fees to offset costs.
While the WHSAA release states that no plans have been finalized and the various changes are currently just possibilities, Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees member Mary Schmidt criticized the WHSAA’s handling of the news at Monday’s board meeting.
“I take some issues with this, [including] the sheer fact that we as Board of Trustees members have not talked about that at all,” Schmidt said. “It is not our intent and it has not been brought to us to cut our athletics or activities budget for the upcoming school year. … I take issue with them picking sports and getting the community upset and ginning them up to be upset that this is all going to be cut when that hasn’t been discussed.”
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Angela Hensley clarified that Natrona County School District 1’s athletics and activities budget saw a reduction of roughly $550,000 in the coming year’s budget, but said the local school district does not plan to cut any sports.
“Thank you, Trustee Schmidt, for saying this, because I think people are wondering — we are not planning to cut athletics and activities for next year,” Hensley said. “We do have to take a look at our entire budget as we have talked about, as we learn more about these new rules that come in.”
Related
Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.
“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.
The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.
Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.
“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.
He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.
The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.
Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.
“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.
The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.
Sheridan will play in the North Regional Tournament at Gillette, while the South Regional Tournament will be played at Rock Springs.
North Regional Tournament at Gillette:
Checking record vs. highest team in the quadrant not involved in the tie, Thunder Basin gets the #1 Northeast seed over Campbell County, because the Lady Bolts went 3-1 vs. Sheridan, whereas the Lady Camels went 2-2.
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 NE) Thunder Basin vs. (#4 NW) Jackson – 11am
(#2 NW) Natrona County vs. (#3 NE) Sheridan – 11am
(#2 NE) Campbell County vs. (#3 NW) Kelly Walsh – 1pm
(#1 NW) Cody vs. (#4 NE) Worland – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Thunder Basin/Jackson winner vs. Natrona County/Sheridan winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh winner vs. Cody/Worland winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Thunder Basin/Jackson loser vs. Natrona County/Sheridan loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh loser vs. Cody/Worland loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
South Regional Tournament at Rock Springs:
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 SW) Laramie vs. (#4 SE) Torrington – 11am
(#2 SE) Cheyenne East vs. (#3 SW) Green River – 11am
(#2 SW) Rock Springs vs. (#3 SE) Wheatland – 1pm
(#1 SE) Cheyenne Central vs. (#4 SW) Cheyenne South – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Laramie/Torrington winner vs. Cheyenne East/Green River winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Rock Springs/Wheatland winner vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Laramie/Torrington loser vs. Cheyenne East/Green River loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Rock Springs/Wheatland loser vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
-
Montana2 minutes agoLawsuit seeks to “cement legality” of corner crossing in Montana
-
Nebraska8 minutes agoStarting fires helped contain a Nebraska wildfire — and ignited another – Flatwater Free Press
-
Nevada14 minutes agoBest Nevada high schools for athletes? One study has revealed a top 25
-
New Hampshire20 minutes agoDAY 4 Now, What To Do About Taxes in NH?
-
New Jersey26 minutes agoBest burgers in New Jersey? 15 spots for classic and inventive burgers
-
New Mexico32 minutes agoFind out how New Mexico hospitals rank for patient safety
-
North Carolina38 minutes agoNorth Carolina couple accused of causing vulture invasion sued by furious town: ‘Not good neighbors’
-
North Dakota44 minutes agoDust storms rage in North Dakota and South Dakota