Uranium Development Stock Loses 600 Billion Won in a Day Despite Government Approval

Shares of NexGen Energy Ltd. (NYSE: NXE) plunged 6.41% on the New York Stock Exchange on the 14th, closing at $11.20. Trading volume hit 3.12 million shares, and the company’s market capitalization stood at about $7.4 billion (roughly KRW 10 trillion). In a single session, approximately $446 million—about KRW 600 billion—of market value was wiped out.

On March 5, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) granted NexGen Energy a license for site preparation and construction of its Rook I uranium mine project, completing the key federal permitting stage. The federal approval has generated optimism—several brokerages have raised their price targets and spotlighted NXE as a beneficiary of looming uranium supply shortages—but after a sharp short-term rally, profit-taking and increased volatility have driven a pullback in the share price.

NexGen Energy holds one of the world’s largest development-stage uranium deposits at its Rook I project in the Athabasca Basin of northwest Saskatchewan, Canada. The company is listed simultaneously on the New York, Toronto and Australian stock exchanges. As global nuclear investment and uranium prices enter a long-term uptrend amid energy-security and carbon-neutrality goals, the timing of production start-up and the securing of long-term supply contracts with North American utilities are seen as the key factors that will shape NexGen’s future share performance.