UPDATE 1-Nufcor Uranium buys 620,532 pounds of uranium

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - London-listed Nufcor Uranium Ltd (NU.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it was buying 620,532 pounds of uranium from a major international counter-party for delivery in the fourth quarter.

Nufcor said in a statement it would pay an inferred price of $59.03 a pound.

The purchase has helped drive uranium UX-U3O8-SPT prices higher in recent weeks. The spot price of uranium, used to fuel the world's nuclear plants, rose $4 to $64 per pound last week.

"It is a sizeable amount of uranium in a very short period of time, in what is a very illiquid spot market -- it clearly shows that this buying has been largely responsible for the pick up in the spot price from $57-64," said analyst Max Layton at Macquarie Bank said.

Earlier this month traders suggested Nufcor could buy around 1 million pounds after raising around $75 million in a share issue. [ID:nL15643231]

Nufcor said it intended to pay for the Uranium with existing cash resources and from proceeds of a proposed offering of new shares.

"The next thing that could have an incremental impact from here is further buying, and demand for their issue is likely to be strong given the rally in global oil, gas and coal prices since the start of this year," Layton said.

The two largest funds holding uranium are Canada's Uranium Participation Corp. (UPC) (U.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) and Nufcor -- which together own around 8 million pounds of uranium.

(Reporting by Anna Stablum; editing by Christopher Johnson)