Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
     (Continuing comments by Askar Batyrbayev, Chief Commercial Officer of NAC Kazatomprom JSC.)
     Batyrbayev said that biggest challenge was transporting uranium. “We started to develop alternative routes that do not use Russia at all.” A three month ban on the transport of Class 7 radioactive materials through St Petersburg was imposed during the 2018 soccer World Cup. It was a trigger point for Kazatomprom to consider other options. There are continuing discussions to transit China.
     Batyrbayev said that one appropriate route has already been identified through the Caspian Sea, into the Black Sea and the via the Mediterranean Sea. The first shipment was made to Orano using this route in 2018. There have been seven shipments made to countries around the world utilizing that route since then. He said that transporting uranium via this alternative route is “definitely slightly more expensive” than the previous route across Russia. The Russian route has been used for twenty years. It is shorter and quicker for deliveries to France.
     Nicolas Maes, CEO of Orano Mining, said “From the supply perspective, we need to remember that at the moment Canada is operating at 50% of its capacity. We have reduced Niger to 50% of what it produced in the year 2011 and our operations in Kazakhstan are probably still 23-24% below their nameplate capacity.”
     Maes went on to say that geopolitical risks and supply chain risks highlight the need for diversity. That has been a key feature of Orano’s operations for some time. He said, “Despite the low-price period and the very difficult situation, we kept progressing with our projects, we kept running the most significant exploration projects and the most significant development projects. As we speak now, we have one pilot ISL project operating in Mongolia, we are building one in Uzbekistan that will be commissioned by the end of the year and we have decided to reshape our Imouraren project in Niger … At the end of 2023, we will have proven technologies at projects in Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Niger”. He added that the decision to make investments will have to be a joint decision between customers, utilities and the nuclear industry.
     Cameco President and CEO Tim Gitzel said, “We operate on supply-demand fundamentals. We want good utility customers that will stick with us for 5 to 10 years at conditions that are acceptable to both sides so that we can confidently invest in our operations and run them … What we won’t do is just fire up everything again just to get in the same spot we were before and go through another 10 years of tough time.”
      Gitzel went on to say that operations that have been placed in care and maintenance are likely to be the first ones to be restarted “as the market improves and as our customers are calling for and can show to us that they need it, and when we come to an agreement we will start bringing those back on.”
      Cameco announced plans in February to begin ramping up production at the McArthur River/Key Lake which had been idle since 2018. Gitzel mentioned that it will probably require eighteen to twenty-four months “to reach the level we want. We are not going to run it at full speed, we say we will run it at about 15 million pounds. We’ve had it has high as 20 million pounds and we’re licensed for 25 million.” He also noted that Cameco could also bring assets back online in Wyoming and Nebraska in the U.S., if market conditions are right.
      Batyrbayev said that Kazakh uranium mines are currently operating about twenty percent below capacity. He added that “If we see that the market needs more material, first we can return back to 100% capacity, we can go to 120% [under existing subsoil agreements].” He also said that Kazatomprom is planning to begin commercial operation at a new mine in 2024 which will reach full capacity in 2026. At that time, it will be the biggest ISL mine in the world. The first year of production has already been contracted.