Inkai Uranium Project
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The Inkai uranium mine (Russian Инкаи ) is a mine for the extraction of uranium ore in the northern southern Kazakhstan, near the town Taikonur. The Inkai uranium mine is a joint venture between the Canadian company Cameco and the Kazakh company Kazatomprom. Uranium mining was started in 2010. With 1636.7 tonnes of uranium in 2010 Inkai is the fourth-largest uranium mine in Kazakhstan.
Geography
The mine is located in the north of the area in southern Kazakhstan near the village Taikonur. It is located about 370 kilometers north of Shymkent and 125 kilometers east of Kyzylorda.
Occurrence
In South Kazakhstan region, there are several uranium deposits in sandstone in different size. The Inkai uranium mine consists of three areas: two factories and an exploration site. The uranium reserves of the entire mine are at 134.7 million pounds of uranium ore. Further south of that mine is the Südinkai uranium mine, which is operated by SXR Uranium One with Kazatomprom.
History
The uranium deposits of Inkai uranium mine was discovered in 1976. The joint venture was officially registered by the Kazakh Ministry of Justice on 21 March 1996. It was as a German - Canadian- Kazakh joint venture between the German uranium mining GmbH, a subsidiary of RWE AG, as well as Cameco and the National Joint Stock Company Atomic Power Engineering and Industry " katep " ( katep ). Each of the three companies was involved with one third of the joint venture. After the founding of the company Kazatomprom, the proportions of katep were transferred to Kazatomprom by an agreement on March 5, 1998. In the same year acquired the share of Cameco uranium mining GmbH and increased its interest in Inkai to more than 66 percent. In November 1998, Cameco agreed to reduce its share to 60 percent and to increase the share of Kazatomprom to 40 percent.
Production at full capacity of a production capacity of 2,000 tons of uranium was started in 2010.