Podcast #28: Paul Ma – CGN Mining

In today's episode, Marcelo López spoke to Paul Ma, director of CGN Mining, a company that is part of the China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), the world's third largest nuclear power corporation, and a member of the board of directors of Fission Uranium. Paul has more than 10 years of experience in the uranium industry, including exploration, development, mining and investment activities. He is responsible for CGN Mining's overseas operations, including development, mergers and acquisitions. When asked if the uranium market is an opportunity, Paul brought an elaborate explanation, putting into place the most relevant events for the sector over the past 20 years from an historical perspective. He highlighted the characteristics of the last bull market along with several important factors and how they have changed, such as the role of low-cost producers, the Fukushima incident, expectations, the installed capacity of nuclear reactors worldwide and the signing of long-term contracts. Ma highlighted the existence of a deficit between world demand and primary uranium production and discussed the availability of the commodity in the spot market, the possibility of taking advantage of prices to increase inventories and the importance of guaranteeing a sustainable and reliable supply throughout several decades of a reactor's useful life. Paul spoke about jurisdictions that he considers interesting for carrying out asset acquisitions in the uranium mining sector, provided some details about two projects recently acquired in one of these locations and mentioned the characteristics he seeks in an M&A operation. Paul commented on his perspective regarding the expansion of nuclear energy production in the Asian giant, highlighting the technologies used, the importance of reactor standardisation and economies of scale in the process. Ma also talked about the level of uranium stock in the country, the level of prices observed today and ended by explaining the main risks he sees for the sector.