Top uranium producer Kazatomprom launches modernized refinery in Turkestan

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(Kitco News) - Kazakhstan's Kazatomprom (LSE: KAP), the world's largest uranium producer, announced last Saturday that its subsidiary Kazatomprom-SaUran has completed the modernization of the refinery in the Turkestan region for the production of uranium oxide with a capacity of 1,600 tons per year.

The company said that the production capacity of the refinery will allow producing and extracting uranium of very high quality and purity, adding that the recovery factor as a result of the modernization will increase from 98.2% to 100% for uranium processing.

According to a press release, as part of the project, equipment and technology were switched from the extraction refining to peroxide refining, which is easy to use and is more cost-effective.

Importantly, the company said that the level of injury risk in the refining shop of Kazatomprom- SaUran will decrease due to the exclusion of organic chemicals from the process.

“I congratulate all colleagues who took part in the implementation of the project on the successful launch of the refinery. During the modernization of the enterprise, our own modern highly efficient technologies and developments were used,” said Yerzhan Mukanov, Chairman of Kazatomprom Management Board.

Kazatomprom is the largest uranium producer in the world with natural uranium production in proportion to the company's participatory interest in the amount of about 22% of the total global primary uranium production in 2022.

The group has the largest uranium reserve base in the industry. Kazatomprom, together with subsidiaries, affiliates and joint organizations, is developing 26 deposits combined into 14 uranium mining enterprises. All uranium mining enterprises are located in Kazakhstan and use in-situ recovery technology.