Russian-Kazakh uranium company aims to dominate market Source: ALMATY, Kazakhstan, Dec 7 AFP Published: December 08 2006, 05:09AM
A Russian-Kazakh mining company said today it aimed to dominate the world uranium market, overtaking Australia's output, after producing its first tonne of the radioactive metal.
The new Zarechnoye company is to mine 1,000 tonnes of uranium a year from 2009 as part of a target by Kazakhstan, which boasts 20 per cent of the world's uranium reserves, to overtake Australia and Canada to become the largest uranium producer.
"It's not that we aim to reinforce, with our Kazakh partners, our position in the market. We aim to dominate the market," said Sergei Kirienko, head of Russia's atomic energy agency. advertisement
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The annual mining target of 1,000 tonnes could be reached as early as 2008, Kirienko said, according to the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency.
An agreement between Astana and Moscow calls for the creation of two other uranium companies, aiming for an annual total production of 6,000 tonnes.
Once extracted, the uranium is to be enriched in Russia.
Uranium, a white heavy toxic metal, is used to fuel nuclear reactors and build atomic bombs.
