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Post Memorial Day, auction fever hits the uranium market. In less than three weeks, four uranium auctions will have taken place. Spot U3O8 price has jumped by 300 percent, since June 2006 when it closed the month at US$46/pound. The uranium price has soared by 475 percent in less than two years.

Is there more price rally left in the ‘long march’ of the spot price? This week could be telling. Four uranium auctions in 17 days should bring increased transparency to the spot uranium market.

On May 30th, Mestena Uranium LLC received sealed bids for the sale of 100 thousand pounds U3O8, which sent the spot price to US$133/pound. Two days later, TradeTech increased its weekly spot price indicator to US$138/pound.

The June 1st auction was conducted by Joe Card, through his Atlanta-based nuclear fuel brokerage firm American Fuel Resources LLC. Card’s website can be visited at http://www.americanfuelresources.com/

On June 12th, Denison Mines (AMEX: DNN) through Uranium Participation Corp (TSX: UPC) will receive bids for 125 thousand pounds U3O8 for delivery in June.

Later this week, on June 15th, Nufcor offers 200 thousand pounds U3O8 and 100 tUF6.

According to Nuclear Market Review (NMR), “The material is located at Eurodif and available for delivery on June 29th.” TradeTech stood firm on the consulting service’s weekly spot price indicator despite the three dollar discrepancy with competitor, Ux Consulting. NMR editor Treva Klingbiel explained in the June 8th issue, “Demand remains strong with 14 utilities seeking offers totaling approximately 26 million pounds U3O8 equivalent for delivery in 2007 – 2018.”

An AREVA subsidiary, Eurodif is based in southeastern France and enriches uranium for about 23 percent of the world’s nuclear reactors. Eurodif stands for ‘European Gaseous Diffusion,’ and refers to the process utilized to enrich uranium hexafluoride (UF6) in civilian reactors.

Joe McCourt of New York Nuclear held the weekly trading session on Thursday this week, delayed because of the fuel market convention held in Greece. Thursday’s two-hour screen session trading, closed with a bid to buy 10,000 pounds U3O8 at $138/pound and an offer to sell at $155/pound. These are the highest bid/ask prices posted on Uranium Online since trading began.

McCourt wrote in his June 8th edition of FreshFUEL, “With the continued ‘long march’ of the spot price, we could see a cash-futures inversion. If this inversion does happen, the market is saying that it’s better to own U3O8 today than to ‘expect’ to own it at the end of the month.”

At this past week’s World Nuclear Fuel Market conference in Greece, Harrison Barker, the nuclear fuel procurement manager for Dominion (NYSE: D), argued that the rising uranium price could impact the construction decisions of new nuclear plants in the United States. He pointed out ‘the cost of the initial core’ is beginning to concern because it is included in the capital costs of building a new nuclear plant.