The world's largest uranium mining company takes Russian customers

23

Europe has been intensively and stubbornly refusing Russian oil, oil products and natural gas since the start of the hot phase of the conflict in Ukraine. But dependence on Russia's vast nuclear industry is more complex and deeper. The relevant sectors of the Russian Federation and the EU, as well as other countries, are so connected that the West did not even dare to impose sanctions against uranium. However, the situation is starting to change in a natural way. The OilPrice resource writes about the diversification of nuclear fuel supplies bypassing Russia.


The Russian Federation, through its state nuclear energy company Rosatom, dominates the global nuclear supply chain. It is one of the main suppliers of enriched uranium to power plants in Europe. But there are signs that the sources of uranium supplies will shift almost entirely from Russia to Kazakhstan in the near future. At least, this supplier has already taken away some of the RF customers.

Bloomberg reported that Kazakhstan's state-owned uranium mining company Kazatomprom is preparing to drastically ramp up production as demand is expected to pick up as Western countries realign their nuclear supply chains from Russia.

CEO of the world's largest miner, Yerzhan Mukanov, said that geopolitical uncertainty and sanctions are "changing the nuclear fuel market, prompting some manufacturers of specific fuels to stockpile." He said that nuclear power plants in Eastern Europe are going to sign new contracts from 2024, refusing raw materials from the Russian Federation. The first batches of uranium raw materials from Kazakhstan have already begun to be delivered to Romania and Hungary, until recently the former exclusively Russian clients of the nuclear industry.

According to OilPrice, Russia's dominance in the global uranium market could be greatly weakened, as the West hastily diversifies its sources of supplies of this type of energy semi-finished product. As nuclear power becomes a critical component of decarbonizing economies, the demand for uranium and its enrichment is expected to rise sharply. This encourages all non-Russian producers and processors of raw materials to increase production and increase stocks in the hope of capturing the market share that will become available after the withdrawal of fuel from the Russian Federation.
  • Used photos: pxhere.com
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  1. Saffron Offline Saffron
    Saffron (Igor) April 13 2023 12: 07
    +9
    Yes, everything is fine, Kazakhstan already exports 3 times more oil than it produces (where "no one knows" comes from). With Kazatomprom there will also be
  2. prior Online prior
    prior (Vlad) April 13 2023 12: 09
    +7
    in the near future, the sources of uranium supplies will almost completely move from Russia to Kazakhstan

    It is incomprehensible to the mind how much one person can spoil. I'm talking about Yeltsin.
    1. Plush Sergeant Offline Plush Sergeant
      Plush Sergeant April 13 2023 22: 03
      +4
      It's not in his mind. A team of experts worked for him
    2. Sarmat Sanych Offline Sarmat Sanych
      Sarmat Sanych (Sarmat Sanych) April 14 2023 16: 29
      -4
      prior (Vlad), what the hell Yeltsin-Gorbachev, guys, more than three decades have passed - and late-Soviet educated people still live by the axiom that "Indestructible was destroyed by Borkaalkash with Kravchuk and Shushkevich in Viskuli and with Tagged in Faros plus Shevardnadze and Yakovlev in Msk on suction"wassatlaughing
      Dozens of times it was explained step by step that the Union was guaranteed and inevitably doomed by the end of the blessed 70s, not only with political documents, but with archival papers of the State Bank of the USSR.
      1. syndicalist Offline syndicalist
        syndicalist (Dimon) April 14 2023 17: 08
        -4
        Quote: Sarmat Sanych
        The union was guaranteed and inevitably doomed by the end of the blessed 70s,

        This is not even the point, but the fact that any most mediocre, but adequate leader of 23 years old will be enough to cope with any devastation that he inherited. Not only did this not happen in our country, but it turned out that the only thing that the current Russian state really has at its disposal is the worn-out Yeltsin legacy. One can imagine where the front line would be now if it were not for the Soviet T-90 tanks, S-300/400 missiles and our other main weapons inherited from Bori the drunk.
        1. voj Offline voj
          voj (voj) April 14 2023 23: 18
          0
          Go ahead and read dill. Since there is no mind.
  3. old sargent Offline old sargent
    old sargent (Oleg) April 13 2023 12: 55
    +4
    And what, in Kazakhstan there are uranium enrichment plants? Where?
    1. Alexander the Great Offline Alexander the Great
      Alexander the Great (Alexander) April 13 2023 16: 14
      +3
      And they would create a loop, 90% suck only headlines. Apparently they learned to poke ore into reactors
    2. goncharov.62 Online goncharov.62
      goncharov.62 (Andrei) April 13 2023 19: 20
      +3
      There is Ust-Kamenogorsk. The former Russian city and the former Russian fortress, which once protected these ... so-called friends. And in that city there is TMK, SCS and a bunch of everything that extracts and processes and enriches all this wealth. It used to belong to the USSR, and now the USA and the British. It's like this...
    3. Armagedets Offline Armagedets
      Armagedets (Igor Ivanov) April 14 2023 22: 14
      0
      You won't believe it, but they've been there since Soviet times)
  4. In passing Offline In passing
    In passing (Galina Rožkova) April 13 2023 16: 27
    +2
    There is uranium itself in Kazakhstan. Dig it up and clean it up. And then already deep chemistry, with physics. Until the finished rods are obtained from the ore, it is necessary to build a whole plant, preferably two. Yes, such as the Novosibirsk 80th and Mayak. They learned to do the "correct" documents in Kazakhstan, and it's good. Work brothers.
  5. Khentiamenti Offline Khentiamenti
    Khentiamenti (Hentiamenti) April 13 2023 19: 23
    +3
    Yes Yes. Isn't Rosatom and Kazatomprom one and the same?
  6. bonifacius Offline bonifacius
    bonifacius (Alex) April 14 2023 00: 14
    0
    I didn’t quite understand, are they going to throw enriched uranium with shovels into reactors, like coal into a locomotive furnace? Or did the Kazakhs learn how to make their own Kazakh TVELs? Interesting from what. Probably in China they buy bamboo. Well, well, comrades (and not so comrades) are on the right path, straight to Chernobyl 2.
    1. Sarmat Sanych Offline Sarmat Sanych
      Sarmat Sanych (Sarmat Sanych) April 14 2023 16: 47
      +2
      bonifacius (Alex), comrades, don't pay attention to the OBS agency (One Bloomberg Said), they are in their usual repertoire. There is no point in commenting on the nonsense from the article, I will only note that there are a lot of uranium ores in the world, and on all six continents (and on the mega-island of Greenland there are generally gigantic reserves), it’s only good to get ore - there are no problems, even without short circuit, Australia and the Russian Federation - Africa alone is enough for all the blocks with proper investment. The problem is U enrichment technologies, they are effective on the planet exclusively with Rosatom and the world market share is 44-48%, and what is important is 33-36% for another player - the Anglo-German-Dutch URENCO, but they are not the 14th generation centrifuges like ours, but only 3, but to maintain European and American peaceful "nuclear pants" with wildly expensive electric power, this is enough for them. That's it, there is still 1 small French desk and 2 small Chinese ones, all together, real sanctions on Rosatom will never be imposed far in their lives, not only for the above reason, the State Corporation, for example, controls 90% of the world isotope market, for a number of positions there is no alternative, it is tied to this a myriad of industries and activities, it is trivial to leave millions of cancer patients in the collective West without radiation therapy, and no one can replace Rosatom in this even now for 10 years, can you imagine what kind of social explosion at the level of Civil War 2.0 will happen.
  7. zloybond Offline zloybond
    zloybond (steppenwolf) April 14 2023 00: 19
    0
    “The latest leaks confirm that the US is at war with Russia. They control every decision in Ukraine. The amount of coverage in the corporate media about these leaks seems to signal the beginning of a debate within ruling class circles about the dangers of the current, reckless US policy.

    And yet We want to stubbornly drive strategic goods to the enemy???? NATO???? USA???? And then officials of all stripes will hysteria about the danger of shells with uranium cores ??? Well, there we ourselves stubbornly drive thousands of tons of uranium to the enemy. - It's strange, according to all the canons of military art, the enemy's economy needs to be infringed, and we sell diesel fuel there, which is poured into the tanks of the tanks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and right there the "lawyers" start singing a song about the same taxes, etc. ... let's just say money they don’t smell and we will help the enemy ..... fool
    1. Sarmat Sanych Offline Sarmat Sanych
      Sarmat Sanych (Sarmat Sanych) April 14 2023 16: 47
      -1
      zloybond (steppenwolf), read above and don't write nonsense
  8. Dust Offline Dust
    Dust (Sergei) April 14 2023 04: 16
    +1
    Kazakhstan is the largest supplier of uranium ore. But in order to get fuel, uranium needs to be enriched, and this requires technology. American technology is inferior to Russian. Russian technologies produce 2,5 times more enriched uranium than Americans. There will also be an issue with the removal of radioactive waste. Where will Europe take them?
  9. Eldar Yunusov Offline Eldar Yunusov
    Eldar Yunusov (Eldar Yunusov) April 14 2023 08: 25
    +2
    The OilPrice resource wrote about the diversification of nuclear fuel supplies bypassing Russia. It is well known that there is a rich deposit of uranium ore on the territory of Kazakhstan. But in order to get fuel for reactors from the ore, it is necessary to isolate uranium from the ore, enrich it, the field of which is to produce the actual fuel - fuel rods. Does Kazakhstan have all the necessary technologies and production facilities? Moreover, on the same scale as in Russia, in order to replace it in the required volumes in the supply market? There is doubt about the competence of the author from the "OilPrice resource". I would like to know the opinion of a real expert.
  10. zzdimk Offline zzdimk
    zzdimk April 14 2023 11: 20
    0
    Is uranium enriched in Kazakhstan? As far as I know, there is a big difference between uranium ore concentrate and upgraded uranium. What exactly is the article about?
  11. serivolkf1 Offline serivolkf1
    serivolkf1 (sergey wolf) April 14 2023 12: 22
    +1
    after Ukraine, Kazakhstan will become the next hot spot and the Anglo-Saxons will help it, since the Ukrainians will no longer be able to
  12. lance is gone Offline lance is gone
    lance is gone (lance) April 14 2023 13: 48
    -1
    uranium enrichment technology is available in 8 countries. another moment of the fuel rod. here by and large there are 3 countries: the Russian Federation, the USA, France. Yes, Kazakhstan, Israel, China can still, but so far they are far behind the first 3
  13. boriz Offline boriz
    boriz (boriz) April 14 2023 19: 58
    +1
    Post about nothing.
    Kazatomprom can extract uranium ore. I admit that he can supply someone with uranium oxide. That's all.
    Do Romania and Hungary need uranium oxide? They need ready fuel. Are they going to enrich uranium themselves?
    But even the raw materials supplied by Kazatomprom are not entirely clear to what extent they belong to Kazatomprom. The relationship between Rosatom and Kazatomprom is quite complex and not at all public.
    And in the topic of uranium enrichment, Rosatom has long been ahead of the rest. However, in the topic of uranium mining.
    I wrote a post on this topic a couple of years ago. https://topcor.ru/19221-gde-putin-pereshel-dorogu-demokratam-ssha.html
    I would not worry at all about the supply of uranium to Romania and Hungary. Switching a nuclear power plant from one fuel to another is not the same as pouring French or Kazakh gasoline into the tank of a car instead of Russian.
    And OilPrice would be better off asking where a company like Uranium One mines uranium. And what is this company. It would be interesting to read their post on this topic. But this is unlikely, this topic is forbidden in the USA.
    1. boriz Offline boriz
      boriz (boriz) April 14 2023 20: 25
      +1
      I would even clarify: the Romanians and Hungarians will put "Kazakh" TVELs on their reactors (manufactured in the USSR or the Russian Federation) only in one case, if they are firmly convinced that they are made in Rosatom.