New uranium field opened in south Kazakhstan

ASTANA, April 28 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan has begun mining uranium at a new field in the south of the country with a production capacity of 750 metric tons annually, the national nuclear power company said on Tuesday.

The new deposit was brought into operation as part of Kazakh-Chinese cooperation in nuclear power engineering, Kazatomprom said in a statement.

"The field's operator is the joint venture Semizbai-U and the project is being implemented as part of the agreement on strategic partnership between Kazatomprom and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Co. - CGNPC", the statement said.

The uranium field will reach its intended annual output of 750 metric tons of uranium next year, with 500 metric tons expected to be produced in 2009. The field will have an operational life of 25 years.

Under the agreement between Kazatomprom and CGNPC, uranium extracted from the field will be used to meet the requirements of China's nuclear industry.