Kaskor Joint Stock Company

Mining Complex: Open pit mining of uranium phosphate ore deposits at Melovoye and Tomyak. Operations were suspended in February 1994. ¹ Chemical Complex: A chemical-hydrometallurgical plant produced uranium concentrate in the form of uranium oxide (U3O8), scandium oxide, scandium fluoride, and other rare earth elements for export. ² The complex also included sulfuric acid and nitric fertilizer production facilities. ³ The fertilizer plant was transferred to MAEK in 1994. ⁴ Machine Building Complex (Remzavod): Manufacturing of equipment for the oil, mining, chemical and agricultural industries. Research Laboratory Dikfa Joint Stock Company: Toothpaste manufacturer. ⁵

Kaskor was formerly known as the Prikaspiyskiy Mining and Metallurgy Combine (MMC). The Prikaspiyskiy MMC, a large-scale ore mining and processing enterprise, was established in 1959 to exploit uranium-phosphate deposits on the Mangyshlak Peninsula. ⁶ The discovery of these deposits led to the founding of the city of Aktau and the construction of the Mangyshlak Atomic Energy Combine (MAEK) to supply desalinated water and electricity to the Prikaspiyskiy MMC. ⁷ By the end of the 1960s, the Prikaspiyskiy MMC was one of the major producers of uranium in Kazakhstan and, along with the Navoi Mining and Metallurgy Combine in Uzbekistan and the Tselinnyy Mining and Chemical Combine, was at the core of the Soviet uranium production industry. In 1994, total uranium resources of mines run by Kaskor were estimated at 64,400 metric tons (t) of uranium. ⁸ The complex is reported to have had an annual capacity in excess of three million pounds of U3O8. ⁹ After Kazakhstani independence, the Combine was privatized and became a state holding company under the name Kaskor, with 51 percent of its stock held by the government. ¹⁰ Uranium production declined in the early 1990s, from 2.6 million pounds of U3O8 in 1990 to 832,000 pounds in 1993. ¹¹ Mining and milling operations were suspended as of February 1994. A Kazakhstani official explained that open-pit extraction, an expensive technique, had made Kaskor uranium prices non-competitive on the market. ¹² The Kaskor Chemical Complex, a producer of fertilizer from the Soviet era, was temporarily placed under the control of MAEK in 1994. ¹³