According to Bloomberg, the project aims to extract about 8,000 metric tons of uranium octaoxide from the central province of Quang Nam.

“If coal is the short-term solution to the world’s energy needs, uranium is the long-term play,” says Jason Simpkins in Money Morning.

“In a recent research note, analysts with the RBC Capital Markets Group of the Royal Bank of Canada (RY) said that the current spot price of uranium has been ‘driven to excessively low levels due to intense selling pressure and lack of buying demand, coupled with the typical illiquidity of the spot market.’

“The RBC analysts also said that ‘the long-term price, on the other hand, has not changed since May 2007 and we think this better reflects the market’s view of longer-term supply-demand fundamentals.’

“If you want a pure play on an increase in the price of uranium itself, Cameco Corp. (CCJ) is your best shot. It’s the largest producer of uranium in North America and – despite flooding at its Cigar Lake site last year – Cameco remains the world’s largest and most liquid uranium miner, making it vital to the global supply.

“The company’s profit more than doubled in the first three months of 2008, surging 125% on its uranium and gold mining operations.”

Read on here to find out which blue-chip mining companies Jason thinks have maximum profit potential.

Doug Casey in Casey Research has picked up on some other Canadian uranium mining companies: “Hathor Exploration tagged a radioactive one on its 90% owned Midwest NorthEast uranium property in Saskatchewan. The latest drill results included 15 metres running an impressive 10.02% U308 in one hole and 10.06% U308 over 9 metres in another. Nice. Hathor ended the day up C$0.27 at C$3.05, while 10% carried interest holder Terra Ventures closed flat at C$0.75.”

In December, Money Morning Investment Director Keith Fitz-Gerald publicly forecast that oil prices will reach $187 a barrel within three years. In mid-March, he reiterated this projection.

According to Keith colleague at Money Morning, “Not only has this forecast continued to receive widespread play on energy — and investment– related web sites, we’re starting to see similar ‘me too’ predictions being made by some the energy sector’s heavyweight experts: Literally only days after Money Morning reiterated its forecast, Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs said that crude oil prices would reach $175 a barrel in the next two years.”

To find out ways to profit when oil bubble up over $100 a barrel click here.

Crude price forecasts can’t be accurate without understanding Saudi oil production. And the truth of the matter is that Saudi oil wells are drying up.

“Saudi Arabia has announced for 20 years in a row that they have 260 billion barrels of oil in reserve,” legendary investor Jim Rogers told Money Morning during an interview in Singapore last month. “It’s astonishing. The figure never goes up and it never goes down. They have produced dozens of millions — billions — of dollars of oil in that period of time.

“If you go to Saudi Arabia, you have to wonder: ‘How could this be? How could it be that every year for 20 years in a row, you always have 260 billion barrels of oil in reserve?’ The Saudis say: ‘You either believe us or you don’t.’ And that’s the end of the conversation.”