Russia, Kazakhstan launch uranium joint venture

Zarechnoye (Kazakhstan), Dec 7: A joint venture between Russia and Kazakhstan produced its first tonne of uranium in Kazakhstan today in a move that helps Russia secure cheap supplies of the radioactive metal.

Home to a fifth of global uranium reserves, Kazakhstan wants to be the world's No 1 uranium producer by 2010, surpassing Australia and Canada.

The Central Asian state has signed a string of deals this year with foreign partners to boost uranium production, of which today's venture with Russia was the latest.

The Zarechnoye mine, near Kazakhstan's border with Uzbekistan, is at the centre of Russia's plans to secure control over nuclear mines across the ex-Soviet world as demand for the radioactive metal continues to rise on the global market.

''We're working together to enrich uranium,'' Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russian atomic energy authority Rosatom, told reporters.

''The uranium mining enterprise should produce up to 6,000 tonnes a year.'' The Zarechnoye mine itself will produce 1,000 tonnes a year by 2009, officials said. In the next four years Russia and Kazakhstan plan to exploit a further 5,000 tonnes a year in nearby deposits, Rosatom officials said.

Russia has floated the idea of enriching nuclear fuel for countries like Iran that say they want nuclear power but where other states fear clandestine weapons programmes.

The Zarechnoye joint venture, which will send uranium to Russia for enrichment, is not explicitly part of that proposal, but it will give Russia more enriched uranium to market.

Kazakhstan needs outside help to fully exploit its abundant supplies of uranium. Russia, on the other hand, needs new nuclear fuel sources as its reserves get depleted.

''We have to unite and work together,'' Kazakh Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov said at the opening ceremony.

The presidents of the two countries signed an agreement in January to jointly mine and enrich uranium and to jointly build a nuclear reactor, the Kazakh atomic energy agency Kazatomprom said in a statement.

The Zarechnoye mine has estimated reserves of 19,000 tonnes of uranium. Kazatomprom holds 49.33 per cent in the venture, Russia's state-run Tekhsnabexport holds 49.33 per cent and a Russian and a Kyrgyz company each hold 0.67 per cent.

Demand for uranium is booming as China and Russia build new reactors, and the West seeks to diversify energy sources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Uranium exploration in Kazakhstan started in 1948, a year before the Soviet Union tested its first nuclear bomb in the north of the sprawling Central Asian state.

Kazakhstan plans to triple annual uranium production to 17,500 tonnes by 2015. Kazatomprom also has joint ventures with France's Areva , Canada's Cameco and Japanese Sumitomo Corp and Kansai Electric Power Co.

REUTERS