UrAsia announces sale of Kazakh uranium

Monday, 15 January 2007

UrAsia Energy Ltd has entered into an agreement to supply a major North American utility with uranium.

 

The contract is for the sale of some 4 million pounds U3O8 for delivery over a five-year period, with quantities ranging from 250,000 to 1 million pounds U3O8 per year. The financial terms of the contract have not been disclosed, but the contract includes market-related pricing terms with floorprice protection.

 

UrAsiaholds a 70% interest in the Betpak Dala Joint Venture, which has a 100% interest in the Akdala in-situ leach (ISL) uranium mine and a 100% interest inthe South Inkai ISL uranium development project in Kazakhstan. The balance of theinterest in the Betpak Dala JV is owned by KazAtomProm, the Kazakh state uranium company.

 

TheAkdala project began commercial operations on 1 January 2004, following a two-and-a-half-year pilot plant testing program. The mine has been producing uranium at a rate of about 2.6 million pounds U3O8 per year since April 2006 with estimate doperating costs of $7.34/lb U3O8.

 

The South Inkai project is currently under construction andis scheduled to start production by the end of 2007. Based on the Preliminary Assessment, South Inkai is to be developed onthe basis of an annual production rate of 600t of uranium with the potential to increase that to 1000t. Costs for an operation producing 600t of uranium per year are estimated by KazAtomProm to amount to $8.49/lb U3O8.

 

The company's existing contracts represent the sale of all of Akdala's output for 2007, as well as a portion of the projected production through to 2011. UrAsia is a Canadian-based uranium producer, led by former Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) Managing Director, Phillip Shirvington.

 

Further information

 

UrAsia Energy 

 

WNA's Uranium and Nuclear Power in Kazakhstan information paper