Kazatomprom warns Ukraine war makes it harder to supply west

“It is much easier for us to sell most, if not all, of our production to our Asian partners — I wouldn’t call [out] the specific country . . . They can eat up almost all of our production or our partners to the north,” he told the FT.

“It’s much easier to sell to them, but we don’t want to put all our eggs in one basket.”

The world’s largest uranium producer wants to keep selling to US and European utilities, even though shipping material on the traditional, cheaper route via St Petersburg is no longer an option because of the risk of sanctions.

The Kazakh state miner has sought to establish a more expensive alternative route to ship material through the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and the Black Sea.

Kazakhstan produces 43% of the world’s uranium. Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear monopoly, holds a stake in five of Kazatomprom’s 14 deposits and receives 20% of the country’s output, according to Yussupov.

In 2023, Kazatomprom sent 49% of its uranium production to Asia, 32% to Europe and 19% to America.

On Tuesday, the company announced that it had obtained a six-year subsoil use licence for uranium exploration at block 5 of Budenovskoye deposit, located in the Suzak district of the Turkestan region. The licence is exclusive to Kazatomprom.

“The new block, Budenovskoye 5, holds promise for further development and is an important step of Kazatomprom’s strategy on replenishment of uranium resources,” said Yussupov.

The uranium resources at the site are estimated to be more than 18,000 tonnes, according to the miner.

Shares of Kazatomprom were trading up 0.14% in London at 15:30 BST, with the company having a market cap of $7.62 billion.