During a session of a working group on the development of Kazakhstan's nuclear energy earlier on Tuesday, Russia's top nuclear official Sergei Kiriyenko and Kazakh Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov signed documents on the establishment of the three ventures.
"Together with the program on the nuclear development, which we [Russia] worked out, the establishment of the joint ventures with Kazakhstan will solve the issue of uranium provision for nuclear energy," Kiriyenko said.
Kiriyenko added that the new project would produce 5-6,000 metric tons of uranium a year while Russia's annual output at the moment totaled slightly over 3,000 tons.
He said the ventures should be registered by September 30, and working groups should present their feasibility studies by November 30.
Techsnabexport, Russia's state-controlled uranium supplier and provider of uranium enrichment services, already holds a 49.33% stake in a joint venture set up in 2004 in the south of mineral-rich Kazakhstan. It is exploring a uranium ore deposit with estimated reserves of 19,000 metric tons of uranium in Zarechnoye near the border with Central-Asian neighbors Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
