Shareholders of Kazatomprom, the world’s largest uranium producer and a portfolio company of Kazakhstan’s Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund, will vote in November on whether to approve a contract to supply natural uranium to Uranium One Group, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned nuclear corporation Rosatom. The vote will be conducted in absentia, according to the company’s announcement.
The agenda contains a single item: approval of a major related-party transaction involving the supply of natural uranium (U3O8, or triuranium octoxide) to Uranium One Group.
Shareholders must select a voting option on their ballots and submit them by mail or in person to Kazatomprom’s office in Astana between Nov. 27 and 6 p.m. on Dec. 9. The vote will be valid if shareholders holding more than 50% of the company’s shares participate.
Kazatomprom’s Board of Directors initiated the shareholders’ meeting. The list of eligible shareholders will be finalized as of Nov. 17. Ballots will be available starting Nov. 25, voting will close Dec. 9, and the results will be tallied Dec. 10.
Second attempt to approve the Uranium One deal
Kazatomprom shareholders previously failed to approve a major transaction involving uranium supplies to Uranium One Group. However, they backed a similar contract with China’s State Nuclear Uranium Resource Development Company Limited (SNURDC).
Of the three items on the agenda, only the proposed agreement with Uranium One Group failed to pass.
Approval required a simple majority. However, 88.34% of the shares represented in the vote — 200.8 million shares — were recorded as abstentions. Only 5.39% of the shares, or 12.2 million, were voted in favor, while 6.27%, or 14.2 million shares, were voted against.
By contrast, shareholders overwhelmingly approved a major related-party transaction with SNURDC involving a spot contract for the purchase and sale of natural uranium concentrates. A total of 88.63% of the shares represented in the vote, or 201.5 million shares, supported the deal. Another 6.49%, or 14.7 million shares, opposed it, while 4.88%, or 11 million shares, abstained.
Uranium One’s partnership with Russia
Uranium One Group is owned by Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation. It produces natural uranium and explores and develops uranium deposits abroad, including in Kazakhstan and Tanzania.
In Kazakhstan, Uranium One Group participates in major uranium projects, including the Budenovskoye project, in partnership with Kazatomprom. More recently, however, Uranium One Group has been divesting some of its Kazakh assets and transferring them to Chinese investors.
The company produces approximately 4,800 tons of natural uranium annually and supplies nuclear fuel markets in Europe, North America and Asia.
Rosatom faces sanctions pressure from Western countries over Russia’s war against Ukraine, including measures imposed by the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union. Although Rosatom itself has not been broadly sanctioned, certain subsidiaries and senior executives have been targeted by sanctions.
Rosatom has also emerged as the leader of the consortium selected to build Kazakhstan’s first nuclear power plant.