Moscow – Kazakhstan’s nuclear resources company Kazatomprom said on Tuesday that Russia’s Rosatom was selling its stakes in some uranium deposits which the two groups had been developing together to Chinese-owned companies. Kazatomprom, listed in London and Kazakhstan, is the world’s largest producer of uranium and has the largest reserve base. It accounted for 20% of global primary uranium production in 2023, but lacks its own uranium processing capacity.
Rosatom used to have stakes in 6 of 14 Kazatomprom’s deposits, receiving a share of the output in a deal that complicated the Kazakh firm’s sales to the West. Kazatomprom, which has flagged sanctions risks associated with Rosatom to its investors, said that Rosatom unit, Uranium One Group, had sold its 49.979% stake in the Zarechnoye mine to SNURDC Astana Mining Company Limited, whose ultimate beneficiary is China’s State Nuclear Uranium Resources Development Company. Uranium One Group is also expected to give up 30% in the Khorasan-U joint venture to China Uranium Development Company Limited, the ultimate beneficiary of which is China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN, China), Kazatomprom said. China is the biggest buyer of Kazakhstan’s uranium. After the Khorasan-U stake sale Rosatom will still have stakes in Kazatomprom deposits, with combined reserves of 255,000 tons. This includes the Budennovskoye deposit, one of the world’s largest, that Rosatom acquired under a deal disclosed in 2023. Khorasan-U operates at the Kharasan-1 block of Severny Kharasan deposit in the Zhanakorgan district of the Kyzylorda region. Uranium reserves of the deposit amounted to about 33,000 tons at the beginning of 2024, with an expected maturity in 2038, Kazatomprom said. Uranium One produced 4,831 tonnes of uranium in Kazakhstan in 2023. Russia is the world’s sixth largest uranium producer and controls about 44% of global uranium enrichment capacity