Rosatom, Interros to Cooperate in Uranium Mining

MOSCOW. June 18 (Interfax) – Russian federal atomic energy agency Rosatom and the Interros holding have signed a cooperation deal which covers uranium mining in Russia and abroad.

Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko and Interros chief Vladimir Potanin signed the agreement.

The parties intend to work together to explore and develop uranium deposits, and to mine uranium and associated minerals. They intend to implement new uranium exploration and mining methods, which are environmentally friendly as well as capable of increasing output.

They also plan to attract investment in order to increase production of hi-tech goods and to train scientific, engineering and management specialists for the atomic sector.

Interros said 18 months ago that it was launching a new mining project, which called for investment in uranium fields. Soon afterwards, it was reported that Interros had expressed an interest in Uzbekistan’s Navoi Mining and Metals Plant, which mines uranium, but no official confirmation of this has been received.

Viktor Vekselberg’s Renova group was the first privately owned company that the Russian atomic sector started to work with in uranium mining. Renova and the state-owned Techsnabexport (Tenex) are carrying out a project to explore and mine uranium in Namibia.

“This is a strategic agreement, which incorporates a lot of cooperation areas,” Kiriyenko said after the ceremony.

Apart from geological survey and development of uranium deposits, which are of interest for both entities as uranium often comes together with gold and other metals, the agency and Interros will cooperate in high-tech research and development, including the industrial production of hydrogen and super-conductors.

“The entire territory of Russia is of interest for us,” he said in comments on the possible joint uranium mining projects. “As for foreign countries, we are primarily interested in Uzbekistan and African countries.”

“Our cooperation will bring results by the end of this year, most probably, in late fall,” Potanin said.

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