Good news for the uranium market! Remember that uranium mine at Inkai, the one run by Kazatomprom and Cameco? Well, Inkai uranium production, which was paused at the start of January, is back up and running.
Kazatomprom, the Kazakh national atomic company, explained in their fourth-quarter update that the temporary shutdown at Inkai’s Block 1 was due to some paperwork issues. Basically, they hadn’t received some necessary approvals from the government because the paperwork was submitted late. It sounds like a bit of a bureaucratic hiccup.
But, as they announced, that’s all sorted now. The approvals are in hand, and mining operations at Block 1 have restarted. Kazatomprom is now figuring out if this brief pause will affect their overall production plans for 2025.
It turns out this whole thing was a bit of a surprise. According to Kazatomprom’s initial announcement on January 2nd, they had to suspend operations to comply with Kazakh law because they missed a December 30th deadline for those government approvals. Cameco, the other partner in the joint venture, said they weren’t expecting the suspension at all. They only found out on December 31st that JV Inkai hadn’t received the extension they were counting on for submitting some documents.
Cameco is also working with JV Inkai to understand just how this little production hiccup might impact their 2025 plans.
Just as a reminder, Kazatomprom owns the lion’s share (60%) of JV Inkai, while Cameco holds a 40% stake.
