Energy Fuels: From Loss to Profit in Two Years? A Bet on Uranium and Rare Earths
China currently controls about ninety percent of the world's rare earth processing—the raw materials without which not a single electric vehicle, robot, data center, or guided missile can function. One Colorado company has decided to break that dependence and, in the process, become the largest American uranium miner. For an investor in critical materials, that story sounds like a dream. But Energy Fuels is mainly building ambition, not profit, and it closed its latest quarter with a loss of $33.6 million.
Key points
Energy Fuels owns the only operating conventional uranium mill in the U.S. and aims to become the largest combined uranium and rare earth company in North America.
In the second quarter of 2026, it had revenue of just $25.1 million and a loss of $33.6 million, but it sits on working capital of close to $1 billion.
The company is building a mine-to-magnet strategy and is buying German magnet maker VAC for about $1.9 billion and Australia's ASM to do so.
Uranium climbed above $100 per pound in January this year for the first time in two years before settling around $85. The company mines it at a cost of only $23.
Analysts expect the company to turn from a loss in 2026 to a profit of about $25 million in 2027 and $55 million in 2028, while the average price target for the stock points about 60 percent higher.
Few raw materials have transformed into such a sharp geopolitical tool in recent years as rare earths. This group of seventeen metals hides in magnets that spin electric vehicles, wind turbines, and robots, cool data centers, and guide weapons. And the world has one unpleasant problem: their processing and magnet production are firmly in China's grip. All Beijing has to do is tighten exports, and the entire Western industry chokes. That is why the United States is frantically trying to build its own independent supply chain, and Energy Fuels stands among the boldest companies attempting it.
At first glance, this Colorado firm has everything it needs for that. It owns the only fully licensed conventional uranium mill in the United States, along with a number of uranium mines, rare earth projects on several continents, and a war chest approaching a billion dollars. Moreover, the U.S. government stands behind it, having promised a conditional loan of over seven hundred million dollars. The ambition is clear: build the entire chain from mined ore to finished magnet and become the largest combined uranium and rare earth company in North America.
Between ambition and reality, however, yawns a chasm that enthusiastic headlines like to skip over. The company is mainly building the future, not profit. The latest quarter ended in a loss, revenue is tiny relative to such grand plans, and the whole structure is still being assembled from projects and acquisitions, many of which are not yet complete. A key project in Australia awaits a financing decision, raw material supply hangs in the air, and some parts of the chain will not start up for another two years.