ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan’s national atomic company Kazatomprom, the world leader in the extraction of natural uranium, on December 4 announced its intention to reduce planned uranium production by 20% in order to better align its output with demand.
The scheduled cuts will be enacted for a period of three years commencing January 2018.
This will result in the production deferral of 11 thousand tons over the period, of which an estimated 4 thousand tons in 2018 alone representing approximately 7.5% of global uranium production for 2018, the company said.
Kazatomprom has informed all its major customers of its decision, and confirmed that future contractual delivery obligations will not be affected by these measures.
“Given the challenging market conditions, and in light of continued oversupply in the uranium market, we have taken the strategic decision to reduce production in order to better align our production levels with market demand,” said Galymzhan Pirmatov, Chairman of the Management Board of Kazatomprom. “We believe that these measures strongly underline our commitment to ensuring the long-term sustainability of uranium mining; a critical component in the generation of clean, carbon free electricity around the globe.”
Kazatomprom JSC is the national operator in Kazakhstan for the import and export of uranium, rare metals, and nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants. Kazakhstan’s national wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna JSC is the only shareholder of the company.
Since 2009, Kazatomprom has been the world leader in the extraction of natural uranium.
