Investors Guru Featured Stock News - Amex/TSX: URZ Uranerz Energy

Uranerz Receives Final NRC Approval

CASPER, WYOMING -- Uranerz Energy Corporation ("Uranerz" or the "Company") (TSX:URZ)(NYSE Amex:URZ)(FRANKFURT:U9E) is pleased to announce that the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission ("NRC") has issued the Materials License for the Company's Nichols Ranch ISR Uranium Project located in the Central Powder River Basin of Wyoming, U.S.A. The Materials License is the last NRC authorization required to commence on-site construction for eventual production at the Nichols Ranch ISR Uranium Project.

Construction activities will commence within the next few days to take full advantage of the summer/fall construction season in Wyoming. Uranerz has already initiated procurement of ion exchange equipment, including three sand filters and six resin loading columns. Well-field installation equipment is also on order including a cement silo, cementing pressure pump units, mixing trucks and well casing. The local electric utility has recently completed construction of a substation in close proximity to the Nichols Ranch project which will service the Company's mining operations in the Powder River Basin as well as other industrial projects in the region.

"The receipt of the NRC Materials License, the final step in the NRC licensing process, marks a very significant milestone achieved by the Company and represents the culmination of over four years of effort which was spearheaded by Mike Thomas our Manager of Environment, Health and Safety," stated Uranerz CEO & President Glenn Catchpole. "I congratulate our entire staff for their valuable contributions through the permitting process. The hiring of new staff is now underway and the Company is focused on the development and planned operation of the Nichols Ranch ISR Uranium Project."

About Uranerz

Uranerz Energy Corporation is a U.S.-based uranium company focused on achieving near-term commercial in-situ recovery ("ISR") uranium production in Wyoming, the largest producer of uranium of any U.S. state. The Uranerz management team has specialized expertise in the ISR uranium mining method, and has a record of licensing, constructing, and operating commercial ISR uranium projects. The Company has already entered into long-term uranium sales contracts with two of the largest nuclear utilities in the U.S., including Exelon.

Uranerz Energy Corporation is listed on the NYSE Amex and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "URZ", and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "U9E".

Further Information

For further information, please contact Derek Iwanaka, Manager of Investor Relations at 1-800-689-1659 or by email at info@uranerz.com. Alternatively, please refer to the Company's website at www.uranerz.com, review the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov, or visit the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release may contain or refer to "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable United States and Canadian securities laws, which may include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the anticipated timing and progress of construction commencement and equipment procurement, the anticipated availability of electricity, and all statements containing projections or plans or estimates or which predict or project the outcome of the Nichols Ranch ISR Uranium Project operations. Such forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, the risks and uncertainties outlined in our most recent financial statements and reports and registration statement filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") (available at www.sec.gov) and with Canadian securities administrators (available at www.sedar.com). Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. We do not undertake to update forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Uranerz Energy Corporation
Manager of Investor Relations
1-800-689-1659

info@uranerz.com
www.uranerz.com

Source: Marketwire Canada (July 20, 2011 - 12:49 PM EDT)

Investors Guru Small Cap Stock Observer

(TSXV: PCT, BAT, GCM) - How To Ride Colombia’s Next Investment Wave?

Have you ever raised your voice in anger – and then had to apologize the next day for overreacting?

The same scenario occurs repeatedly in the market. There is an emotional surge by the herd, followed by an aggressive retreat. Each time this happens a small group of savvy investors profit.

When a solid stream of good news flows into a sector, investors pile in. As the herd gains size and momentum – it becomes easily spooked. Any sharp noise will cause a reverse in direction. As the herd skitters backwards, they are not reacting to the noise: they are reacting to the reaction to the noise.

Case in point: Colombia.

Through all of 2010, Colombia was the darling of the investment community. The World Bank rated them the most improved business environment. Bullish headlines dominated the mainstream media: “Colombia Seeks Oil Investment”, “Wall Street Cheers Santos”, “Investment Dollars Flood into Colombia”.

And then the bloom went off! There was a scandal at the drug enforcement agency, inflationary pressure, a high profile kidnapping and massive flooding of agricultural areas. In truth, none of these events have any great importance to an international investor, but it was enough to trigger the stampede.

After gaining 40% in Q3/Q4 2010, Colombian-based exploration and production companies declined 1% over Q1/11. During the same period, the Colombian Stock Exchange experienced a 7% decline.

The fact is Colombia contains trillions of dollars of oil, gas, timber and gold – a veritable smorgasbord of the world’s most desired dishes.

Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry affirmed that foreign direct investment is projected to exceed $10 billion in 2011, up from $6.76 billion in 2010.

All the economic indicators suggest that Colombia is about to get hot – again.

Mature companies like Pacific Rubiales (TSX: PRE), Ecopetrol (NYSE: EC) and Canacol Energy (TSX: CNE) are poised for a good run but with a combined market cap of $8.5 billion they aren't likely to morph into triple baggers overnight.

Here are three junior companies that have been sold off in the reverse Colombian stampede - and appear poised to rebound.

Each of them has a rapidly growing resource base and is entering the phase of development which has typically been the most profitable for shareholders.

Prima Colombia Hardwood (TSXV: PCT) is a new company run by Donald and Harold Hayes – two brothers who were early helicopter loggers in British Columbia, Canada.

PCT has an exclusive 15-year lease to selectively harvest 3.1 million cubic meters of sustainable tropical premium Colombian hardwood.

Tropical Hardwood sells for about $300 a cubic meter, more than double the price of Pine and Hemlock.

On May 2, 2011, PCT finalized a formal agreement with Pacific Lumber to help Prima expand its timber concessions. The agreement anticipates the potential of a ten-fold increase to 31.5 million cubic meters.

Production units are built around the lifting capabilities of a single helicopter. The additional concessions will give PCT a potential 10-helicopter harvesting force.

Operational timelines forecast log sales by Q3, 2011.

Global demand for hardwood has increased 2,500% over the last four decades.

With a market cap of $47 million, PCT is currently trading at $0.17 – down 53% from its 52-week high of $0.365.

Batero Gold (TSXV: BAT) is a well-funded Colombian gold explorer with about $10 million in cash.

It is executing an aggressive exploration and drill program aimed at generating a compliant NI-43-101 resource by Q4, 2011.

Phase 1 drill program comprising 16,000 meters is completed.

Phase 2 drill program is well underway, comprising 24,000 meters. There are currently 8 drill rigs turning and about 250 employees on the ground, including 23 geologists.

Batero has inherited a decade of “on the ground” social and community work and appears to have strong local support.

Comprehensive infrastructure and access is in place including roads, water and power. The project ranges in elevation between 1600m and 1950m in elevation.

La Cumbre porphyry gold and copper mineralization has been intercepted at or near surface. An even higher-grade zone of mineralization has been intersected at or near surface up to 200+ metres depth; the porphyry remains open to the NNW and SSE and at depth.

With a market cap of $118 million, BAT is currently trading at $2.48 – down 62% from its 52-week high of $6.57.

Gran Colombia (TSXV: GCM) is the largest underground gold and silver producer in Colombia with six underground mines in operation. It is also developing a large-scale, open-pit gold and silver mine at Marmato.

On June 13, 2011 Gran Colombia completed of a merger with Medoro Resources Ltd. (TSX: MRS, MRS.WT).

"The merger creates Colombia's premier gold company with an attractive portfolio of gold and silver assets, said CEO Serafino Iacono.

The merger provides better liquidity and operational synergies. Current production of 109,000 gold ounces in 2011 is forecast to grow to over 630,000 by 2016.

Estimated selling and administrative expense are projected at $3-5 million annually.

The new company is well positioned to bring increased shareholder value through strong production growth and decreased mining costs.

With a market cap of $304 million, GCM is currently trading at $0.78 – down 69% from its 52-week high of $2.49.

Colombia’s Recent Credit Rating Upgrades

On May 31, 2011 Colombia was upgraded to an investment-grade credit rating by Moody's. This follows an upgrade from Standard and Poor’s in March, and opens the door to senior institutional funds - which require two investment grade credit ratings.

“A herd appears to act as a unit”, explains evolutionary biologist, W. D. Hamilton, “but its function emerges from the uncoordinated behavior of self-seeking individuals”.

Colombia’s enormous riches and business-friendly environment ensure that investors will come back to Colombia. Running at the head of that herd could be very profitable.

More at: www.PrimaHardwood.com, www.BateroGold.com, and www.GranColombiaGold.com.

Investors Guru Small Cap Stock Observer publishes interesting contributor articles in addition to its own content. We have not verified any of the above details.

Please note that nothing in this report should be taken as a recommendation in any way, and that everything from InvestorsGuru.com is subject to the terms of our Privacy Policy and Disclaimer.

Investors Guru Featured Stock News - Amex/TSX: URZ Uranerz Energy

Uranerz Included in the Russell Family of Indexes

CASPER, WYOMING -- Uranerz Energy Corporation ("Uranerz" or the "Company") (TSX:URZ)(NYSE Amex:URZ)(FRANKFURT:U9E) is pleased to announce that it has been included in the Russell family of indexes, including the Russell 3000® Index, the Russell 2000® Index, and the Russell Global Index.

Annual reconstitution of Russell's U.S. indexes captures the 4,000 largest U.S. stocks as of the end of May, ranking them by total market capitalization. Membership in the Russell 3000, which remains in place for one year, means automatic inclusion in the Russell 1000® Index or Russell 2000® Index as well as the appropriate growth and value style indexes. The Russell 3000 also serves as the U.S. component to the Russell Global Index.

Membership in the Russell Global Index, which remains in place for one year, means automatic inclusion in the appropriate large-cap, small-cap, all-cap indexes as well as the applicable style, sector and country indexes. The Russell Global Index is reconstituted annually and all sub-indexes are recalibrated simultaneously to accurately measure current market realities for each market segment.

Russell determines membership for its equity indexes primarily by objective, market-capitalization rankings and style attributes.

Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for both passive and active investment strategies. An industry-leading $3.9 trillion in institutional assets currently are benchmarked to them. More information about membership in the Russell Indexes can be found at: http://www.russell.com/indexes/membership/default.asp.

About Uranerz

Uranerz Energy Corporation is a U.S.-based uranium company focused on achieving near-term commercial in-situ recovery ("ISR") uranium production in Wyoming, the largest producer of uranium of any U.S. state. The Uranerz management team has specialized expertise in the ISR uranium mining method, and has a record of licensing, constructing and operating commercial ISR uranium projects.

Uranerz Energy Corporation is listed on the NYSE Amex and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "URZ", and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "U9E".

Further Information

For further information, please contact Derek Iwanaka, Manager of Investor Relations at 1-800-689-1659 or by email at info@uranerz.com. Alternatively, please refer to the Company's website at www.uranerz.com, review the Company's filings with the SEC at www.sec.gov, or visit the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release may contain or refer to "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable United States and Canadian securities laws, which may include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the anticipated impact of inclusion in the Russell Indexes and all other statements containing predictions, estimates or projections. Such forward-looking statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the risks and uncertainties outlined in the Company's most recent financial statements and reports and registration statement filed with the SEC (available at www.sec.gov) and with Canadian securities regulators (available at www.sedar.com). Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. We do not undertake to update forward-looking information or forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Contacts:
Uranerz Energy Corporation
Derek Iwanaka
Manager of Investor Relations
1-800-689-1659
info@uranerz.com
www.uranerz.com

Source: Marketwire (June 28, 2011 - 9:03 AM EDT)

Investors Guru Small Cap Stock Observer

(Amex/TSX: URZ) Uranerz Energy – Uranerz To Be Added To Russell Indexes

Last month's article outlined our observations of the market effects each May and June as a result of the Russell Group's annual indexes reconstitution. For more established large-cap stocks these effects are usually minimal, maybe a bump up or down within an index, or a weighting change.

However for small-cap stocks the effects on trading volumes, and as a result share prices, can be very significant as market participants from day traders to index funds bid-up or sell-off shares in anticipation of which companies may be added-to or deleted-from the widely followed Russell 2000 index. As these indexes get finalized at the end of June, index funds must update their holdings to reflect these changes, resulting in one of the stock market's highest volume trading days each year, with wild share price swings for some of the stocks most affected.

To demonstrate this point we looked at the past performance of our Featured Stock (Amex/TSX: URZ) Uranerz Energy, which had been added to various Russell indexes for the first time in 2009. These included the Russell 3000, Russell 2000, Russell Microcap, and Russell Global indexes.

Our charts showed that Uranerz's shares were up 49.40%, from $1.39 on April 30, 2009 to $2.13 on June 26, 2009. Normal URZ trading volume back then was a few hundred thousand shares per day, which spiked to over 5-million shares as the Russell 2000 was finalized on Friday June 26, 2009.

Similarly, our charts showed that URZ was down 41.83%, from $1.59 on May 3, 2010 to $0.91 on July 8, 2010. Volume again spiked to over 4-million shares as the company was removed from the Russell 2000 on Friday June 25, 2010.

Uranerz Energy is a good case study of the potential addition and deletion effects during the Russell indexes June reconstitution. Other than being added to the Russell indexes, can you find anything else in the company's May-June 2009 news releases to explain why URZ was up almost 50%, with its volume up 18 fold - or in May-June 2010 to explain why URZ was down over 40%. I can't!

There is another reason why Uranerz Energy is an interesting study going into this year's Russell indexes reconstitution. Hint: last month's article was entitled, "Will Uranerz Energy Be Inducted To The Russell 2000 Index Next Month?"

Traders and fund managers are closely watching this timeline, from Russell Group's website:

Uranerz Energy selected as a preliminary addition to Russell indexes

As of June 10, 2011, and again on June 17, 2011, the Russell Group's website still lists Uranerz Energy as an addition to the Russell Global index and the Russell 3000 index. The Russell 3000 index measures the performance of the largest 3000 U.S. companies, based almost entirely on market capitalization at the end of May.

The Russell 1000 index and Russell 2000 index are subsets of the Russell 3000 index. Basically the largest 1000 companies makeup the Russell 1000, and the remaining companies makeup the Russell 2000. The Russell 2000 index is the key benchmark for small-cap companies, small-cap fund managers and small-cap index funds.

For Uranerz Energy, being added to this year's Russell 3000 and Global indexes appears to be a done deal at this point. The question now is will Uranerz also make this year's final cut for the widely followed Russell 2000 small-cap index?

Traders potential sweet spot before final posting of the Russell 2000 small-cap index

While there may be a few surprises, from those stocks preliminary listed as compared to the final lists, these are usually limited to mathematical errors or technical issues such as weighting adjustments, as I understand it. This might be a concern for a company close to an index's market-cap cut-off line, or when operating in a crowded business sector, for example.

This doesn't seem to be an issue for Uranerz Energy. Of the 186 preliminary additions to the Russell 3000 index, only 18 of these are in the Materials & Processing sector that Uranerz is classified under. (Amex/TSX: URZ) Uranerz Energy is a uranium company, and the only other uranium additions I can find are (Nasdaq: URRE) Uranium Resources and (Amex: URG) Ur-Energy. Far from crowded!

Also, the table above indicates the market capitalization range for the Russell 2000 index from $130 million to just under $3 billion. On May 31, 2011, URZ closed at $3.20 on the NYSE/Amex. My quote screen shows 76,604,074 shares outstanding, putting the company's market capitalization at over USD $245 million - over $100 million more than the bottom of this range.

FYI: Uranerz Energy also trades on the TSX, symbol T.URZ and on the Frankfurt, symbol U9E:FF.

Based on last year's Russell 2000 membership list and sampling market-caps of smaller companies on this year's preliminary Russell 3000 list, this might put Uranerz Energy around 100 companies above the cut-off line. Please keep in mind this is just a very rough estimate, to get a feel for how much margin of error URZ might have to make the cut into this year's Russell 2000 index.

Unless my calculations are way off, Uranerz Energy should easily qualify for the Russell 2000 index.

The potential sweet spot for traders is that most index funds can't, or don't, update their holdings until the Russell Group formally posts their final indexes membership lists on June 27. That is the main reason for all the trading volume spikes seen on the last Friday of June, as index funds buy the additions and sell the deletions.

In other words there is a small window of time currently when keen traders can usually figure out who these additions and deletions are - before the index funds have to update their holdings.

Dundee Capital Markets, June 15, 2011 Uranerz Energy Update

This report updates Uranerz and another uranium company, entitled, "To Be Added To The Russell Index - We Believe History Predicts A Stock Pop."

For brevity and to avoid repetition here are some snippets: "It is not every day that investors get handed a potential trade where they have strong potential for share appreciation over a short period of time. Based on stock performance over past years, this appears to be what is currently happening with URZ... Russell indices are widely used by investors for index funds and ~$3.9-trillion in institutional assets currently are benchmarked to them.

While the impact of reconstitution may be noticeable for large-cap stocks, the impact on small-cap names has often been immense. Most index investors are going to wait until another preliminary list is announced on June 17, and the final list announced on June 24, before they are bound to the inclusion by June 27. This gives some time for the speculators to buy before we see the likely bump in trading on June 24th." ... Dundee can provide the full 7-page report with its Uranerz Energy stock rating and price target.

Sign-up at InvestorsGuru.com for our newsletter or URZ's News by Email. Free!

Please note that nothing in this report should be taken as a recommendation in any way, and that everything from InvestorsGuru.com is subject to the terms of our Privacy Policy and Disclaimer.