Tag Archives: uranium

Senior Central Bank official named head of Kazakhstan’s Kazatomprom

AUG. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Galymzhan Pirmatov, formerly deputy chairman of the Kazakh Central Bank, was named head of Kazatompron, Kazakhstan’s atomic energy agency, replacing Askar Zhumagaliyev who was made a deputy PM earlier in August (Aug. 31). Kazatomprom is a high profile company in Kazakhstan, with Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev pushing nuclear power and uranium mining. Mr Pirmatov has previously been a VP at Kazatomprom.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Kazakhstan to open uranium bank

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MAY 15 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will open its much-vaunted uranium bank on Aug. 17, media reported quoting MP Kanat Bozumbaev. The uranium bank has been authorized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and is designed to act as a resource for countries that want to develop nuclear energy. Kazakhstan is the world’s largest uranium producer.

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(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)

Kazakhstan sees Brazil as a potential uranium market

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MAY 5 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan has offered to sell uranium to Brazil to cover a shortfall in Brazilian production, media reported quoting Kazakh deputy foreign minister Yerzhan Ashikbayev. Reports said that he had met with Brazilian officials who were looking for help to feed its two nuclear power stations with uranium. Brazil has abundant supplies of unmined uranium but miners have struggled to win environmental licenses to mine it, forcing the power stations to import most of the uranium.

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(News report from Issue No. 328, published on May 12 2017)

Kazakhstan wants to act as OPEC of uranium

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MAY 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan wants to act as the OPEC of the uranium world, manipulating prices with its supply- side dominance, Samruk Kazyna director Berik Beisengaliyev said in an interview with Bloomberg News. Samruk Kazyna is the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund which owns 100% of nuclear agency Kazatomprom. Kazatomprom mines 40% of the world’s uranium. Earlier this year it said it would cut output, sending depressed uranium prices up.

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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)

Kazatomprom not impacted by bankruptcy, says agency

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APRIL 26 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazatomprom, Kazakhstan’s nuclear agency, said that it wouldn’t be affected by the bankruptcy last month of Toshiba’s US unit Westinghouse Electric because it had organised an option to sell its 10% stake back to Toshiba at the price it bought it for. Kazatomprom, the world’s biggest uranium miner, bought a 10% stake in Westinghouse in 2007 for $540m. Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy last month after cost overruns at four nuclear reactors it was building in the US.

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(News report from Issue No. 326, published on April 28 2017)

Nuclear fuel bank in Kazakhstan nears completion

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MARCH 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A low enriched uranium bank being built in Kazakhstan should be operational by September, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano said in a press release. The uranium fuel bank will be the first of its kind in the world and will allow countries to buy uranium for nuclear fuel. It will be administered by the IAEA. For Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, the fuel bank will be a personal success as he wants to build Kazakhstan’s reputation as a global centre for nuclear energy. Kazakhstan is the world’s biggest uranium miner.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

Kazakhstan cuts uranium production, forcing prices to rise

ALMATY, JAN. 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan, the world’s top uranium producer, pledged to cut uranium output, immediately pushing up the price of the metal by 10%.

The production cut promise, and subsequent price rise, demonstrated just how much influence Kazakhstan has over the global uranium market. It currently produces around 40% of the world’s uranium.

Announcing the 10% cut in production, Kazatomprom chairman Askar Zhumagaliyev, said that 2016 had been scarred by a global oversupply of uranium.

“It will be better for our shareholders and stakeholders to leave these strategic uranium resources in soil, rather than use them in the current situation of oversupply,” media quoted him as saying. “The uranium will be produced when the situation improves in the markets in the coming years.”

Uranium prices collapsed in 2016, hitting a 12-year low of $18/pound in mid-December. This represented a drop of 25% since September.

Analysts blamed a number of factors.

A tsunami in 2011 knocked out the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. Fukushima had been a major buyer of uranium before the accident and knocking it out of the market had triggered an immediate oversupply.

The accident at Fukushima also dented the reputation of nuclear power as a safe and reliable energy source and a drop in global oil prices also switched attention away from nuclear power and back to hydrocarbon-fired power which has dropped in price.

Kazakhstan has also contributed to the glut of uranium as it moved to become the world’s biggest supplier. Kazakh uranium production shifted from 18,000 tonnes in 2010 to 24,000 tonnes in 2016. In 2007, Kazatomprom mined 5,000 tonnes.

After the Kazakh cut announcement, which represents around 3% of global supply, Uranium’s spot price rose to $24.25/pound, its highest since September.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Uranium traders see better prices in 2017 after Kazatomprom signals move

JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s been a rough sort of five years for the uranium traders and for the globe’s biggest producers.

At the top of this pile is Kazakhstan which has relentlessly pursued a market-grabbing agenda. It now controls over 40% of the world’s uranium production. Now, though, as reported on page 9, it appears to have signalled that it wants a higher price for its unprocessed uranium product, more often called yellowcake.

By holding back 3% of the world’s production, Kazakhstan’s pushed prices for uranium up by 10%.

And traders are cheering. Ever since a tsunami crashed into the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan in 2011, the market has been supply-side heavy. The tsunami wiped out a major buyer of yellowcake. Since then prices had dropped 75% before picking up slightly at the end of this year.

The problem for the industry is that stocks of yellowcake are so high that it will take Kazatomprom showing restraint for years to allow their production cuts to really take hold on the market.

Until then, uranium traders and producers are hoping, for demand to pick up and for this they are looking to incoming US president Donald Trump.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakh government approves uranium bank

NOV. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Parliament approved a law to establish an International Atomic Energy Agency-sponsored low-enriched uranium fuel bank in the country. For years, Kazakhstan lobbied the Agency to establish a nuclear fuel bank in its territory, as a testimony of the country’s efforts to combat nuclear proliferation. Kazakhstan is the world’s largest producer of uranium.

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(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Kazakhstan signs nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia

OCT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev visited Saudi Arabia where he signed deals with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, including a deal to boost nuclear cooperation. Kazakhstan is one of the biggest producers of uranium in the world and has been trying to build up a market to sell to.

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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)