Russian company Uranium One (a subsidiary of state nuclear corporation Rosatom registered in Canada) on 19 February released its regular quarterly report, which said it intends to keep 2019 production at the same level as 2018 when production totalled 4,383 tonnes of uranium (tU). However, 2018 saw production decrease at a number of fields, notably in Kazakhstan, where the company owns (or has shares in) the Akbastau, Akdala, Karatau, Kharasan, South Inkai and Zarechnoye deposits. In all of them, production was below design capacity. Exploration work at Zarechnoye will be continued over the next two years in order to clarify reserve capacity forecasts.
The sale of 15% of Kazakh state-owned uranium producer Kazatomprom in a dual-listing offering in November and the acquisition by Kazatomprom of Energy Asia (BVI) Ltd at the Kharasan deposits influenced the position of Uranium One, the report says. Kazatomprom’s share in the Kharasan-1 project increased from 34% to 50%, and in the Kharasan-2 project from 5% to 52.5%. Uranium One has a 30% indirect participation in the Kharasan mine through a 30% participation in the Khorasan-u partnership in Kazakhstan. Work at Uranium One’s project for the extraction of uranium at the Mkuzhu River deposit in Tanzania is currently suspended. Uranium One also owned Willow Creek in the US state of Wyoming, where uranium mining ceased in July 2018. The field was transferred to “care and maintenance”, which led to a fall in production over the past year by 10 tons.
At the end of 2018 Uranium One had sales contracts for 17.4 million pounds U3O8 (6693 tU), of which 0.8 million pounds was contracted at an average price, after estimated escalation, of about $74 per pound. The remainder of contracted sales are related to the market price of uranium at the time of delivery, or delivered at fixed prices.
