Russia grows uranium reserves 28,000 tonnes in 2007
MOSCOW. Jan 31 (Interfax) - Russia grew its geological uranium
reserves by 28,000 tonnes in 2007, Anatoly Ledovskikh, the chief of the
Federal Subsurface Resources Agency (Rosnedra), told a press conference.
"The 28,000 tonnes have already been listed with the GKZ [State
Reserves Commission]," Ledovskikh said.
He said 16 licenses were issued to mine approximately 400,000
tonnes of uranium in 2007. Licenses have still to be allocated for
deposits containing 835,000 tonnes.
"We have a lot of viable uranium properties, particularly in the
Trans-Baikal, Trans-Ural, Chukotka and Kalmykia regions," Ledovskikh
said.
Rosnedra plans to allocated 1.3 billion rubles for uranium
exploration in 2008, compared with 1.086 billion rubles in 2007.
The Russian Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) allocated a further 2
billion rubles. "I haven't seen this year's figures yet, but when I
spoke to [Rosatom chief Sergei] Kiriyenko we talked about funding by
Rosatom rising to 7 billion-8 billion rubles," he said.
Pr
(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)