The research's subject matter is the dynamics of prices for the period from 1997 to the middle of 2014. Thematic justification of the research lies in price development of uranium prices caused by the emerging pattern of its reduction in recent years and by significant losses suffered by the uranium mining companies. The article analyzes the uranium prices development in the short-term and long-term contracts in the emerging (nominal) and real prices (taking into account changes in the dollar purchasing power). The paper shows the average monthly and average annual prices for uranium. I present a comparison of uranium prices ratio with oil and gold prices, and their correlation within the period from 1997 to the middle of 2014. The projected growth in electrical power generation and installed capacity of nuclear reactors lead to an increase in demand for uranium, but the volumes of uranium production also show strong growth rate. This creates uncertainty in the level of uranium price in the future. The continuing decline in the price of uranium, which occurs in the last few years, had a negative impact on the financial performance of the uranium mining companies. The paper emphasizes that the improvement and stabilization of enterprises financial performance and Russia's uranium-mining holding require transition to flexible and fixed uranium prices during its realization between the Rosatom State Corporation's companies. These prices should include the minimum supporting (fixed) prices plus market-determined surcharge prices that depends on the current average contract uranium prices in the world under long-term contracts. The findings enable to understand the mechanism of the uranium market functioning and to develop effective strategies to be implemented by the uranium mining companies.
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