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Katko Joint Venture

  • Location
    Tsentralnoye, Shymkent Oblast; headquarters in Almaty
  • Type
    Nuclear-Exploration and Mining
  • Facility Status
    Active

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The Katco Joint Venture LLP (Katco JV) between AREVA and Kazatomprom was established in August 1996 to develop the Moinkum ISL deposit near Tsentralnoye. Ownership is as follows: Areva owns 51% and Kazatomprom 49%. 1 Under the agreement, AREVA will handle the marketing responsibilities. 2 The Katco Joint Venture is an independent agent handling Kazakhstani production and has exclusive rights only to that part of production that is not tied to existing contracts with Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) and Nukem, Inc. 3 Nominal production capacity at the Moinkum deposit is estimated as 700t/year. In June 2000 Kazatomprom CEO Mukhtar Dzhakishev valued Katco JV at $100 million. 4

Katco JV’s main activities are geological exploration and construction of capacities for uranium mining and processing at the Moinkum deposit in the South Kazakhstan. Katco JV signed a contract to build an acid ISL pilot plant at Moinkum in 2000. The Katco JV plans to produce between 9t and 22.7t of U3O8 in 2002. 5 In 2008, Katco JV signed a contract to increase its production of uranium to 4,000 tons per year (approximately 6.25% of the world’s uranium), and to create a humanitarian social project fund. 6

Glossary

Uranium
Uranium is a metal with the atomic number 92. See entries for enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, and highly enriched uranium.

Sources

  1. “Katco, Uranium Mining Company in Kazakhstan.” AREVA, www.areva.com.
  2. Paul Carroll, “The Reconstruction of the Uranium Industry in Kazakhstan,” presentation at the Uranium Institute’s Twenty Second Annual International Symposium 1997, Uranium Institute, www.uilondon.org.
  3. “Interview: The President Speaks,” Interview with KATEP President Victor Yazikov, pp. 14-15, Nukem, May 1994.
  4. “Joint uranium processing projects in Kazakhstan worth over $600 million,” Interfax CIS Daily News Brief, Volume II, Issue 100 (122), 1 June 2000.
  5. Georges Capus and Daniel Comte, “Uranium in 1999—The End of the Roller Coaster Ride?” Uranium Institute Twenty Fourth Annual International Symposium 1999, Uranium Institute, www.uilondon.org; “Kazakhstan is Planning to Increase Uranium Production by 16% from 1999 to 2000,” Uranium Institute News Briefing 00.48, 22-28 November 2000, Uranium Institute, www.uilondon.org.
  6. “Katco JV,” Kazatomprom, www.kazatomprom.kz.

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