Thursday, July 19, 2012 -
Kazakhstan’s national nuclear company Kazatomprom said on Wednesday uranium output in the second quarter of this year was up 9 percent to 5,556 tons.
“The Q2 uranium production figure exceeded the Q1 2012 figure by 9 percent,” the company said in a statement
The production increase underscores Kazakhstan’s position as the world’s leading producer of the energy metal.
Kazatomprom also ramped up production of the rare earth metal Tantalum by 220 percent in the April-June 2012 period from the first quarter.
Conversely, output of Beryllium, another rare earth metal, dropped by 23 percent in the comparable periods, it said.
Kazatomprom produced 21,440 tons of uranium in the full year 2011, a 9 percent increase over the previous year, according to Kazatomprom chief Vladimir Shkolnik.
He said the company made an estimated net profit in 2011 of $523.6 million.
Kazakhstan leapt ahead of Australia and Canada in 2009 to become the world’s number one uranium producer, by boosting output to 15,454 tons from 9,393 a year earlier.
Kazatomprom is the state operator for the import and export of uranium, rare metals, nuclear fuel for power plants, special equipment, and dual-purpose materials.