New York, Feb 17, 2026, 07:42 ET — Premarket
- Denison awarded Wood Canada a construction management contract for its Phoenix in-situ recovery uranium mine
- DNN shares were down about 1.2% in U.S. premarket trading
- Traders are watching for federal permits and Denison’s final investment decision timeline
Denison Mines Corp. said it has awarded Wood Canada Limited a construction management contract to oversee the build-out of the Phoenix in-situ recovery uranium mine at its Wheeler River project in northern Saskatchewan. The company said Wood will handle procurement and construction management for the processing plant and some site infrastructure, with a roughly 24-month construction period penciled in. Denison CEO David Cates said “we stand ready to make a Final Investment Decision and commence construction,” while Wood executive John Day said “Our priority is to enable a safe and seamless transition into execution.” (Newswire)
Denison’s U.S.-listed shares were down 1.2% at $3.78 as of 7:42 a.m. ET. Uranium names were mixed in early trade, with Cameco down about 2.9% and Uranium Energy up 2.1%, while the Global X Uranium ETF was up about 0.3%.
The contract matters because Phoenix is now in the part of the story where timing starts to dominate: permits, then a board-level go-ahead, then shovels. Denison has said it aims to move quickly once it gets final federal approvals, and the construction-management award is one more piece of that setup.
In a January update, Denison said post–final investment decision initial capital costs for Phoenix are expected to be C$600 million, and it had more than C$700 million of cash, physical uranium and investments as of Sept. 30, 2025. It also said the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s two-part hearing on the federal environmental assessment and construction licence concluded on Dec. 11, 2025, and the company is awaiting a decision. (Denison Mines Corp.)
Phoenix is designed as an in-situ recovery, or ISR, operation — a method that extracts uranium from underground without digging out the ore, using wells to circulate a mining solution and pump uranium-bearing fluid back to the surface for processing. (Nrc)
For traders, the bigger question is not who is managing the build. It’s when Ottawa signs off, and whether the schedule stays intact once field work starts.
But the downside scenario is simple and familiar: if the federal decision drifts, the final investment decision slips with it, pushing out first production and leaving room for higher costs or weaker uranium prices to bite.
The next catalyst is regulatory. Investors are watching for the CNSC decision on the environmental assessment and the site-prep and construction licence — and for Denison’s final investment decision, which it has tied to permit timing and previously assumed could land by the end of February.
