MAY 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan wants to act as the OPEC of the uranium world, manipulating prices with its supply- side dominance, Samruk Kazyna director Berik Beisengaliyev said in an interview with Bloomberg News. Samruk Kazyna is the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund which owns 100% of nuclear agency Kazatomprom. Kazatomprom mines 40% of the world’s uranium. Earlier this year it said it would cut output, sending depressed uranium prices up.

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APRIL 26 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazatomprom, Kazakhstan’s nuclear agency, said that it wouldn’t be affected by the bankruptcy last month of Toshiba’s US unit Westinghouse Electric because it had organised an option to sell its 10% stake back to Toshiba at the price it bought it for. Kazatomprom, the world’s biggest uranium miner, bought a 10% stake in Westinghouse in 2007 for $540m. Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy last month after cost overruns at four nuclear reactors it was building in the US.

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MARCH 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A low enriched uranium bank being built in Kazakhstan should be operational by September, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano said in a press release. The uranium fuel bank will be the first of its kind in the world and will allow countries to buy uranium for nuclear fuel. It will be administered by the IAEA. For Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, the fuel bank will be a personal success as he wants to build Kazakhstan’s reputation as a global centre for nuclear energy. Kazakhstan is the world’s biggest uranium miner.

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JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s been a rough sort of five years for the uranium traders and for the globe’s biggest producers.

At the top of this pile is Kazakhstan which has relentlessly pursued a market-grabbing agenda. It now controls over 40% of the world’s uranium production. Now, though, as reported on page 9, it appears to have signalled that it wants a higher price for its unprocessed uranium product, more often called yellowcake.

By holding back 3% of the world’s production, Kazakhstan’s pushed prices for uranium up by 10%.

And traders are cheering. Ever since a tsunami crashed into the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan in 2011, the market has been supply-side heavy. The tsunami wiped out a major buyer of yellowcake. Since then prices had dropped 75% before picking up slightly at the end of this year.

The problem for the industry is that stocks of yellowcake are so high that it will take Kazatomprom showing restraint for years to allow their production cuts to really take hold on the market.

Until then, uranium traders and producers are hoping, for demand to pick up and for this they are looking to incoming US president Donald Trump.

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NOV. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Parliament approved a law to establish an International Atomic Energy Agency-sponsored low-enriched uranium fuel bank in the country. For years, Kazakhstan lobbied the Agency to establish a nuclear fuel bank in its territory, as a testimony of the country’s efforts to combat nuclear proliferation. Kazakhstan is the world’s largest producer of uranium.

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OCT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev visited Saudi Arabia where he signed deals with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, including a deal to boost nuclear cooperation. Kazakhstan is one of the biggest producers of uranium in the world and has been trying to build up a market to sell to.

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