Greetings Contrarian,

This is The Next Big Rush, your daily drop of mining and energy investing news. Where we come together and go shopping at the mall.

Here are the highlights:

🤔 EU Subsidises Nuclear?

💩 Sigma Caught Up In Legal Battle

🙃 Kazatomprom To Increase Production

🤔 EU Subsidises Nuclear?

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, supports industrial subsidies for nuclear energy.

She made this statement during a visit to the Czech Republic, a country heavily reliant on nuclear power for its electricity. Von der Leyen emphasized that each EU member state has the freedom to choose its own energy mix for achieving climate neutrality.

The European Commission has the authority to approve or reject state aid provided to national industries. The Commission recently relaxed rules for subsidies in key areas of the green transition but excluded nuclear technology from the list of “strategic projects”.

Negotiations are ongoing in the European Parliament to potentially include nuclear as a “strategic project” under the Net-Zero Industry Act.

If our overlords are going to misspend our funds, might as well do it in a way we can profit.

💩 Sigma Caught Up In Legal Battle

Sigma Lithium Corp (TSX-V:SGML) (NASDAQ:SGML) has been pulled into in a legal battle between its former husband-and-wife co-CEOs, Ana Cabral-Gardner and Calvyn Gardner, who divorced earlier this year. The divorce led to at least five lawsuits, including disputes over mineral rights crucial for Sigma's mining plans.

Calvyn Gardner accused Ana Cabral-Gardner of transferring mineral rights from a shared company, RI-X Mineração e Consultoria, to Sigma at no cost, potentially granting Sigma valuable lithium deposits. A São Paulo state judge issued an injunction freezing Sigma's ability to use or sell these mineral rights, pending further legal proceedings. Sigma claimed that the injunction wouldn't hinder its expansion and deal-making efforts, citing a “waste sharing agreement” with RI-X.

The divorce proceedings have raised concerns about Sigma's sale plans, and Sigma sued Calvyn Gardner in New York, accusing him of stealing trade secrets to undermine the company's deal-making efforts.

Divorce is the anti-gift that keeps on taking. Fingers crossed they can untangle the mess soon.

🙃 Kazatomprom To Increase Production

The board of Kazakh uranium producer Kazatomprom has approved a strategy to increase uranium production volumes in 2025. This marks a return to 100% production levels relative to its subsoil use agreements for the first time since 2018.

The production increase aims to add up to 6,000 metric tons of uranium to the anticipated global primary supply. Kazatomprom had reduced production by 20% below its subsoil use agreements from 2018 to better match supply with demand.

The additional production in 2025 will be used to fulfill contractual obligations under medium and long-term contracts.

In other words, they’ll be ramping up to fulfill what’s already on the books. Smart.

📰 In Other News:

🤣 Meme Of The Day

Happy Speculating!

The Editor

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.