Kazakhstan Reports Jump In Uranium Output
September 06, 2006
September 6, 2006 -- Kazakhstan has produced 2,400 tons of uranium in the first semester of 2006.
Deputy Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bolat Akchulakov said today that this figure represents an increase of nearly 12 percent compared to the first six months of last year.
Addressing a Eurasian energy forum in the capital, Astana, he also said output had quadrupled since 1997.
The vice president of KazAtomProm, Kazakhstan's atomic energy agency, Askar Kasabekov, said uranium output could reach 17,000 tons in 2010 and 20,000 tons in 2020.
Kasabekov said Kazakhstan's ambition was to become the world's largest uranium producer with an annual output of 30,000 tons.
Kazakhstan is currently the world's third-largest uranium producer. It exports uranium to China, Japan, the United States, South Korea, and Russia.
(Kazakhstan Today, Interfax-Kazakhstan)