Canadian mining company World Wide Minerals (WWM) has ended its long-running legal action to recover its uranium-related investments in Kazakhstan. A statement issued by WWM said the decision by the US Federal District Court in Washington, DC to dismiss WWM's action against RWE Nukem "brings to an end the attempt to recover the Kazakhstan investment through the US court system." The dispute centres around a $1 billion lawsuit filed by WWM and its subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Resources against Kazakhstan and its agency Kazatomprom to recover investments made in 1996-1997 that involved the operation of two underground uranium mines and the development of the Semisby ISL deposit. WWM lost the case and, in February this year, the US Supreme Court denied WWM and Nuclear Fuel Resources permission to appeal.
WWM brought a parallel action against Nukem in February 1999, after Kazakhstan issued Nukem the rights to the US export market while refusing to issue export licences to WWM.
