Full-scale construction at the Phoenix uranium mine started in July. Three months in, the project is 24% complete, Denison Mines said in its third-quarter results.
About $161 million has been spent year-to-date through September, against a full-year 2026 forecast of about $279 million. The production timeline holds: first uranium is still targeted for the second half of 2028, roughly two years after construction began.
The spending pace running ahead of the completion percentage has a reason. Denison buys key equipment directly rather than through its contractors, so cash goes out before the work shows up as physical progress on site. The company describes the spend curve as front-loaded. For shareholders, that means 24% built for $161 million does not translate into a simple total-cost estimate by multiplying up.
By the end of October, nearly half of all site civil work was done, the company says, including the main access road. Concrete work needed to start building the process plant over winter is substantially complete, and offsite fabrication of modular equipment is running in parallel — a deliberate strategy to keep progress moving through the cold months.
Shares closed down 0.34% at $2.9500, on dollar volume of about $11.3 million.
The quarter also brought news from beneath the mine. A drill hole completed during Q3 cut 0.39% uranium oxide over 4.7 metres at the Phoenix North target area. Then in October, drill hole WR-868 cut 0.67% uranium oxide over 2.5 metres about 50 metres to the northeast. Results to date have traced mineralization across about 100 metres of strike length, and the company says the anticipated optimal target horizon has not yet been tested.