OREANDA-NEWS. September 20, 2010. Atomredmetzoloto OJSC, a Russian holding company obtained consent of the Government of Kazakhstan to the acquisition of the controlling block of shares of Uranium One, a Canadian uranium company, Head of Rosatom State Corporation Sergey Kirienko announced to the journalists.

“We’ve obtained consent of the Government of Kazakhstan,” he said having thanked the Prime Minister of this country Karim Masimov for this decision. On Tuesday S.Kirienko and К.Masimov visited the site of one of four Russian uranium enrichment enterprises — Angarsk Electrolysis Chemical Plant. At the end of the visit they answered the journalists questions. “It’s true that conclusion of the deal was far from simple (ARMZ and Uranium One — Interfax).

For the first time we’ve obtained the controlling block of shares of the largest private company in the world in such sensitive and hi-tech sphere as nuclear power industry”, Head of Rosatom said. “We needed two decisions and we can start it (the deal implementation  — Interfax) only with the sanction of the Government of Kazakhstan. We got it preliminary. It’s very important for us that the decision of the government was obtained at the end of August, before closing Uranium One shareholders’ meeting,” S. Kirienko noted.

On August 31 the Canadian company shareholders voted for the deal. It is stipulated that ARMZ in return for the shares of Uranium One will redeem its debts in two uranium enterprises being operated in the territory of Kazakhstan.

Russia takes part in uranium extraction in the territory of Kazakhstan, and Kazakhstan is interested in participation in the activity of Russian uranium enrichment companies, the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan К.Masimov declared in his turn. He reminded that some years before the presidents of the two countries had approved the joint integrated program of the nuclear power industry development. “Today we’ve discussed some matters concerning participation of Kazakhstan in some uranium enrichment projects in Russia,” he said. Thus, Kazakhstan is a shareholder of the International Uranium Enrichment Center (IUEC) established on the basis of Angarsk Electrolysis Chemical Plant.

“This is a very interesting and very important project for the international community,” Head of the Kazakhstan Cabinet supposes. Besides, Kazatomprom intends to purchase the stock of shares of another Russian enrichment plant — Ural Electrochemical Integrated Plant via its affiliated company.

К.Masimov highly appreciated Russia’s activity in the field of enrichment. “The interest to such kind of enterprises is very high in the world, and Russian is the world leader in such technologies. I think that other countries should work a lot to reach such level”, the Prime Minister declared. In his opinion, the fact that Russia is ready to sell a share in one of its plants to Kazakhstan within commercial project framework is “a goodwill gesture”.