to khan from russia with love

Thanks goodness Lance is in the USA...just one more risk mitigation factor in favour of PEN, NKLEX has already highlighted again recently.

Just click on the blue bits to go to the sources.

To Khan From Russia With Love

The Russians realy play hard ball...in part:

"But, I bet the following comment from ARMZ CEO Vadim Zhirov is a bitter pill to swallow and has Khan shaking its collective fist:

“We believe the offer represents full and fair value for the Khan shares and provides Khan shareholders with an opportunity to receive liquidity at a significant premium to the current market as well as value certainty today, relative to the significant political and licensing risks associated with the development of the Dornod property in Mongolia.”

The “significant political and licensing risks” he’s speaking of were created in large part by Russia’s push to become top dog in the uranium market and Mongolia’s cowering in the shadow of its stronger neighbour, who it has become financially dependent upon.

Mongolia is teetering on the edge of economic disaster and has become reliant on $1 billion in foreign loans. Moscow is using Mongolia’s struggling economic situation and its dependence upon Russian financial aide to get its hands on Mongolia’s abundant resources, including its uranium deposits."



On a positive note, I read with interest just then in todays paper here that Indonesia is planning to build a nuclear energy reactor. They have major power supply problems here, as well as air pollution beyond belief. This is just one aid to the improvement of air quality here, but they need a lot more.

They will need uranium so it just adds to the expected world demand. Greenies here have jumped on it though so the ensuing debate will go something like this...

Greenies: "We don't want it, it's not the answer" (like coal is rolol).
Govt: "Yes we care about your concerns but get lost we are doing it anyway"...welcome to Indonesian politics :)

I read this in todays paper...

Govt not to shelve nuke power plant project
Thursday, December 3, 2009 17:53
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Research and Technology Minister Suharna Surapranata said the government would not shelve its plan to build a nuclear power plant (PLTN) in the country.

"The plan to build a nuclear power plant should not be terminated. The government is still preparing its blue print," the minister said on the sidelines of an executive meeting of the Nuclear Power Supervisory Board (Bapeten) here on Thursday.

Suharna said that the government had not decided who would become the operator of the nuclear power plant which according to plan would be built in Muria Peninsula, Central Java.

"The construction of a PLTN facility needs a large investment," the former researcher at the National Atomic and Energy Agency (BATAN), said. He said the option for the operator of the plant was the government (a state-owned company) or a private firm.

The minister said that in the face of the project his side was still training and educating human resources at the BATAN and Bepeten.

He said that the government hoped that they would become nuclear experts in line with the plan to build the nuclear plant which was expected to start in 2010 and commence operations in 2016.

And it seems they are fair dinkum...

IAEA to evaluate Vietnam and Indonesia's readiness for nuclear power
"NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Bernama) -- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will send two integrated nuclear infrastructure review (INIR) missions to Vietnam and Indonesia, to review their preparations for introducing nuclear power, according to the Vietnam news agency (VNA)."