silkroadintelligencer.com/2...stigation/ (SRI) - The National Security Committee (KNB), Kazakhstan’s intelligence service, concluded its criminal investigation of Mukhtar Dzhakishev, the former head of the state nuclear company Kazatomprom, and his associates, the IA Novosti news agency reported on Tuesday.

According to a KNB spokesman quoted by IA Novosti, the KNB will now provide its materials to the defendants and their lawyers.

Meanwhile, Dzhakishev’s mother and a Kazakh human rights group said Dzhakishev requires immediate hospitalization as his health has deteriorated during his detention, the KazTAG news agency reported...

www1.platts.com/Nuclear/New...lear/News& Kazakhstan state nuclear company Kazatomprom increased uranium production
57% in the first six months of 2009 over the corresponding period in 2008, the
company said Wednesday, putting the country on a path to become the world's
largest producer by the end of the year.

Total uranium production exceeded 6,000 mt of natural uranium in the
first half-year and about 8,000 mt more is expected to be produced in
Kazakhstan in the second half of the year, the company said.

Kazakhstan is the world's second largest uranium producing country after
Canada, and just ahead of Australia. Kazatomprom said its joint venture
companies are implementing plans to put new deposits into operation...

edmontonjournal.com/busines...story.html Uranium One Inc. posted a larger-than-expected second-quarter loss Monday and said it would pay $35 million US to buy Areva’s Malco joint venture, consisting of processing plants and resources in Wyoming.

Meanwhile, chief executive Jean Nortier said he expected no negative impact on the Canadian company from a Kazakh government investigation into past uranium asset sales, which has continued to weigh on Uranium One’s shares.

The company reported a second-quarter net loss of $265.7 million US, or 57 cents a share, due to a $251-million US writeoff on the Dominion mine in Australia, which was closed last year due to low uranium prices and is now for sale...

theglobeandmail.com/report-...le1247047/ Company says it would pay $35-million (U.S.) to buy Areva's Malco joint venture
Uranium One Inc. UUU-T posted a larger than expected second-quarter loss on Monday, and said it would pay $35-million (U.S.) to buy Areva's Malco joint venture, consisting of processing plants and resources in Wyoming.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Jean Nortier said he expected no negative impact on the Canadian company from a Kazakh government investigation into past uranium asset sales, which has continued to weigh on Uranium One's shares.

The company reported a second-quarter net loss of $265.7-million, or 57 cents a share, due to a $251-million writeoff on the Dominion mine in Australia, which was closed last year due to low uranium prices and is now up for sale...

examiner.com/a-2149907~Wife...trial.html The wife of the jailed former head of Kazakhstan's nuclear energy company demanded Monday that an open trial be held for her husband, who is accused of large-scale theft.

Mukhtar Dzhakishev is the highest-profile businessman to be arrested in a recent crackdown on executives that has alarmed foreign investors in uranium-rich Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest economy...

boston.com/news/world/asia/...tion_wife/ ASTANA (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's most prominent uranium industry figure, whose arrest has alarmed foreign investors in Central Asia's biggest economy, is in poor health and requires urgent medical attention, his wife said on Friday.

Mukhtar Dzhakishev, ex-head of state company Kazatomprom, is accused of illegally gaining control over uranium deposits in Kazakhstan, home to a fifth of global uranium reserves. He was arrested in May but has denied any wrongdoing.

Addressing reporters after meeting her husband in a detention center, Jamilya Dzhakisheva said he had lost a lot of weight since she last saw him before the arrest.

"His health is poor," she told reporters after the meeting in the capital Astana. "I will ask for him to be examined and hospitalized because he complains of headaches."...

paguntaka.org/2008/07/23/ur...roduction/ Kazakhstan, the world’s third- biggest uranium miner, plans to overtake Canada and Australia by boosting output of the radioactive metal as much as 43 percent next year as new production starts up.

The country wants to become the world’s biggest producer of uranium, Mukhtar Dzhakishev, the president of the state-run mining company Kazatomprom, told reporters in Almaty today.

Uranium production in the central Asian country will rise to 12,826 metric tons in 2009 from more than 9,000 tons this year, the company said today in a statement. Canada is expected to produce 11,100 tons of uranium next year, while Australia’s annual output estimate is seen at 9,430 tons, according to Kazatomprom. Kazakhstan wants to use its uranium reserves, which account for 15 percent of the world’s total, to participate in all stages of the production cycle, from mining to power generation. Kazatomprom paid $540 million last year for a 10 percent stake in Westinghouse Electric Co., the nuclear-reactor builder controlled by Toshiba Corp...

mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mi...&sn=Detail The man who turned Kazatomprom into top world uranium miner has denied allegations against him saying they have been made up.

Posted: Thursday , 23 Jul 2009

ALMATY (Reuters) -

The former head of Kazakhstan's state nuclear company has denied illegally taking over uranium deposits, a local newspaper reported.

Kazakhstan's KNB security services arrested state-owned Kazatomprom's former head Mukhtar Dzhakishev in May in a move that spooked foreign investors in the Central Asian state, which sits on a fifth of global uranium reserves.

"I think all the allegations have been made up by the investigation ... If the court handles the case objectively I have nothing to worry about," Dzhakishev told the popular Vremya (Time) newspaper in an interview on Thursday...

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8153982.stm
A number of senior government officials have fallen to an anti-corruption drive in Kazakhstan, but some are questioning the motives behind the latest campaign, says the BBC's Central Asia correspondent Rayhan Demytrie.

The Kazakh government has introduced a series of anti-corruption measures, some more gimmicky than others.

The latest is for civil servants to wear badges stating: "I am against corruption."

"We thoroughly studied anti-corruption methods used in other countries before coming up with these suggestions," says Mirbulat Kunbayev, a member of the anti-corruption council of the ruling Nur Otan party...

keionline.org/component/opt...mid,/p,74/ Here are some recent news reports on the Westinghouse Kazakstan deal.

My recent blogs in the Huffington Post July 9, and July 13.

The July 7 AFP report on the July 7 Nikkei story is here:

TOKYO (AFP) - Kazakhstan is to pay 486.3 million dollars to buy a stake in US nuclear reactor firm Westinghouse from its majority owner Toshiba, news reports said Saturday.

The Japanese giant will sign an agreement this month to sell a 10-percent stake in Westinghouse to state-run uranium firm Kazatomprom for slightly more than 60 billion yen, the Nikkei newspaper said.

By forging ties with uranium-rich Kazakhstan Toshiba, which holds a 77-percent stake in Westinghouse, aims to secure stable supplies of the resource used by power plants, Jiji Press said...

hindustantimes.com/News/eur...30531.aspx Kazakh non-government groups expressed concern in Vienna on Thursday about human rights in their country, which is to take over the chairmanship of the OSCE next year.

Human rights violations have "nearly reached the level it used to be in the former Soviet Union," said Daniyar Kanafin, an Almaty-based lawyer who represents Mukhtar Dzhakishev, a former chief of state nuclear firm Kazatomprom, who was arrested on May 21 on embezzlement charges.

Kanafin said that, as Dzakishev's lawyer, he had been denied access to the case against his client, with authorities citing "national security" reasons...

nationalpost.com/related/to...id=1743177 Cameco Corp., the world's biggest uranium producer, will press ahead with investments in Kazakhstan despite a probe into the uranium sector in the Central Asian state, the head of the Canadian uranium miner said.

"We are quite committed to Kazakhstan, yes, any time there's a change, sudden or not sudden, people get a little bit unsettled," said Jerry Grandey, Cameco's chief executive.

His reassurance follows the accusation by Kazakhstan's KNB security service that the former head of state uranium company, Kazatomprom, Mukhtar Dzhakishev, illegally took over state-owned uranium deposits and sold them to foreign companies, a charge he has denied...

nationalpost.com/related/to...id=1736758
VIENNA -- The investment environment in Kazakhstan is still positive for Cameco despite a probe into the uranium sector in the Central Asian state, the head of the Canadian uranium miner said in an interview.

Kazakhstan's KNB security service has accused the former head of state uranium company Kazatomprom, Mukhtar Dzhakishev, of illegally taking over state-owned uranium deposits and selling them to foreign companies, a charge he has denied.

Mr. Dzhakishev was dismissed and arrested last month. Kazakhstan sits on a fifth of global uranium reserves...

unhcr.org/refworld/topic,45...58c,0.html
ALMATY – The wife of the arrested chief of Kazakhstan's uranium producing giant was prevented from leaving Kazakhstan on June 13, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

Dzhamilya Dzhakisheva was on her way to the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, to visit her parents, but Kazakh border guards did not allow her to leave the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border.

Dzhakisheva says she was not allowed to cross the border due to the arrest of her husband, former Kazatomprom President Mukhtar Dzhakishev, who along with his associates was detained by the Kazakh National Security Committee (KNB) last month...

miningweekly.com/article/ur...2009-06-15
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – TSX- and JSE-listed uranium-miner Uranium One on Monday announced that it would buy a 50% stake in another operation in Kazakhstan, boosting its 2010 production forecast by about one-third.

Uranium One has signed a definitive agreement to buy 50% of the Karatau mine, which is part of the Budenovskoye complex, from Russian State-owned mining company Atomredmetzoloto (ARMZ).

The parties have also entered into an offtake agreement which will allow the Russian miner to buy, on an annual basis, the greater amount of 50% of the Karatau mine’s yearly production and 20% of Uranium One’s available attributable production from assets in which it holds the marketing rights...

eurasianet.org/departments/...1009.shtml KAZAKHSTAN: BUSINESS CLIMATE GROWS GLOOMY AMID ARBITRARY ARREST CONTROVERSY
Foreign investors and Kazakhstan’s business elite have been shaken by the arrest of one of the country’s most respected and successful entrepreneurs. As investors look on nervously and some of the country’s top executives protest openly, a probe of all state companies has been ordered. So great has been the controversy stirred by the arrest of Mukhtar Dzhakishev, former head of the state nuclear agency, that President Nursultan Nazarbayev felt compelled to intervene.

Dzhakishev was fired as head of Kazatomprom on May 21 and officially arrested four days later on suspicion of stealing state property. (His wife insists he was actually arrested on May 21).

According to the National Security Committee (NSC), he is accused of appropriating as his personal property 60 percent of Kazakhstan’s uranium deposits worth tens of billions of dollars. The NSC says Dzhakishev committed the alleged crimes in collusion with fugitive banker Mukhtar Ablyazov, his longtime associate. Separately, Ablyazov is accused of running an organized crime ring at BTA Bank, which he owned until the financial institution was forcibly nationalized in February...

uraniuminvestingnews.com/18...upply.html
By now, those interested in the uranium industry are familiar with reports that Uranium One [TSX: UUU] is caught up in a scandal involving the now former head of Kazakhstan’s state uranium firm (Kazatomprom), Mukhtar Dzhakishev.

The KNB (successor to the Soviet-era KGB) has arrested Dzhakishev and accused him of using offshore firms to steal billions of dollars worth of uranium assets from the wealthiest nation in post-Soviet Central Asia.

Rumors are circulating that political motivations are behind Dzhakishev’s arrest. Some question how Dzhakishev could have stolen “more than 60 per cent of state uranium deposits worth tens of billions of dollars,” as the KNB claims, out from under such a heavily monitored and audited industry as exists in Kazakhstan...

neweurasia.net/politics-and...-business/
High-profile corruption scandal has exploded in Kazakhstan. This time it involved «KazAtomProm» National Company - the largest strategic state-owned enterprise of Kazakhstan.

Mukhtar Dzhakishev, the president of «KazAtomProm» was dismissed three weeks after Tatiana Kvyatkovskaya, the member of the ruling party “Nur-Otan”, in her speech inquired to start criminal investigation against him, stating that allegedly “the uranium deposits were sold for peanuts”.

On May 25, 2009 the Press Office of the Kazakhstan National Security Committee (KNB) recently confirmed that the former head of «KazAtomProm» NC had been arrested. But the accusations against M. Dzhakishev were officially announced only on June 01, 2009. Principally he is accused that 60% of the state-owned uranium deposits were transferred into his property. Moreover, allegedly he established “a number of offshore and dummy companies owning over 200 thousand tons uranium strategic stock costing tens of thousands US dollars in order to steal funds raised from uranium production”...

miningweekly.com/article/ca...2009-06-05
Toronto- and Johannesburg-listed uranium-miner Uranium One is not the first foreign resources company to be linked to allegations of improper conduct in the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan.

The Kazakh National Security Committee (known by its Russian initials, KNB) recently stated that it was investigating alleged illegal sales of uranium assets by Mukhtar Dzhakishev, former CEO of State-owned nuclear energy company Kazatomprom.

The KNB identified the sale of 30% of the Kyzylkum joint venture, which owns the Kharasan uranium mine, as one of the transactions under investigation. Uranium One owns 30% of Kyzylkum, which it gained when it bought UrAsia, and UrAsia, in turn, acquired its share from Kazakh investors, not Kazatomprom...

nuclearcounterfeit.com/?tag=kazatomprom The nuclear industry has appealed to Kazakhstan to “uphold the sanctity” of uranium contracts amid an investigation of the country’s national nuclear company.

Letters this week from the World Nuclear Association (WNA) and the US Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev both expressed concern after the arrest of Moukhtar Dzhakishev, the head of KazAtomProm, as well as four other senior executives.

The WNA called for a “just resolution” that “upholds the sanctity of contracts fairly and properly made” and facilitates continued cooperation between Kazakhstan and the global nuclear industry. Both bodies urged Nazarbayev to avoid any disruption to plans for uranium supply or mine development...

silkroadintelligencer.com/2...m-scandal/ Kazakhstan to investigate all strategic asset sales in wake of Kazatomprom scandal
(SRI) - Kazakhstan’s state holding company Samruk-Kazyna will review all asset sales in the country’s strategic sectors after the state’s security agency allegedly uncovered a huge-cale fraud in the state nuclear company Kazatomprom, Kazakh officials said on Monday.


Last week, the National Security Committee (KNB), the country’s intelligence service, accused Kazatomprom’s former manager Mukhtar Dzhakishev of illegally selling lucrative state assets to obscure offshore companies. Later, the KNB specified that Dzhakishev stole more than 60 percent of Kazakhstan’s nuclear reserves, effectively defrauding the country of tens of billions of dollars.

This has prompted the KNB to investigate all deals closed by Dzhakishev during his long tenure at the helm of Kazatomprom - a move that has seen foreign investors fear about the future of their lucrative contracts in Kazakhstan. Uranium One, a Canadian uranium miner which operates a joint venture with Kazatomprom specifically named in KNB’s findings, has seen the value of its stock price drop by almost 40 percent following KNB’s announcement...

nuclearpowerdaily.com/repor...l_999.html
Kazakhstan will review all previous deals made by state-owned firms in the wake of a multi-billion dollar scandal at the country's state nuclear fuel company, the state welfare fund said Tuesday.
The announcement, which specifically mentioned joint-enterprises and subsidiary companies, raises the possibility that billions of dollars in foreign investments made in the ex-Soviet state could now come under scrutiny.

"In order to discover possible similar infractions to the law in this sphere, the decision was taken to take measures to defend the interests of the state," said the Samruk-Kazyna fund, which manages proceeds from asset sales...

u3o8.biz/s/MarketCommentary...investment Savvy investors are well aware of the impact political risk can have on the market perception of a company's share value. The mining industry is especially vulnerable to political risk and the affect it can have on investor interest.

If you follow the uranium market, then you're probably aware of the recent pressure placed on Uranium One's (TSX: UUU) share price after reports started circulating last week that its joint venture property in Kazakhstan may be a part of a government fraud investigation.

On Wednesday last week, Uranium One's stock dropped 30 percent in value as over 10 million shares traded on the TSX within fifteen minutes before trading was halted for three hours. In total, 48 million shares traded by closing (more than double the next most active stock on the TSX) and the stock value had fallen 40 percent to $1.99.

On Tuesday this week, Uranium One shares were trading at around $1.81 by 2:25 PM EST. Obviously, news out of Kazakhstan is creating concern and influencing investor confidence...

miningweekly.com/article/ur...2009-06-02 TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Shares in uranium-miner Uranium One started the week off on a sour note, falling 4,09% in Toronto, where most of the company's stock is traded, and 11,2% on the JSE.

Shares in the company dropped almost 40% in Toronto on May 27, after reports out of Kazakhstan that the head of State uranium company Kazatomprom had been arrested, and Kazakhstan's National Security Committee (KNB) said that it was investigating deals made by the disgraced CEO, who had “illegally” sold stakes in uranium assets.

All three of Uranium One's producing assets are located in Kazakhstan.

The company's shares rebounded on May 28, to C$2,42 apiece in Toronto, but have since fallen back to C$2,11 by the close of trade on Monday...

google.com/hostednews/afp/a...Eh8XkmeDfg
ASTANA (AFP) — The recently imprisoned former head of Kazakhstan's state nuclear power agency stole the majority of the Central Asian nation's uranium deposits, security officials alleged on Monday.

Former Kazatomprom head Mukhtar Dzhakishev and other company officials illegally shifted ownership of uranium mines worth tens of billions of dollars through a network of offshore companies, the KNB security service said.

"Our information confirms the illegal tranfer of more than 60 percent of the state's uranium deposits into the property of Dzhakishev and the companies he owned," a KNB spokesman told reporters in the capital Astana.

The announcement by the KNB -- the successor to the Soviet-era KGB -- raises the pressure on Dzhakishev and other Kazatomprom executives, less than two weeks after he was stripped of his title and imprisoned...

miningmx.com/news/energy/169676.htm
Reuters & Miningmx reporter | Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:13
[miningmx.com] -- Kazakhstan accused the former head of its state uranium firm on Monday of pocketing resources of the nuclear fuel worth billions of dollars, by transferring them to foreign companies he controlled.

The KNB security service arrested the Kazatomprom chief, Mukhtar Dzhakishev, last month along with other officials, accusing them of illegal uranium deals.

Dzhakishev, 45, has not publicly commented on the case. The KNB has said he is denying any wrongdoing.

On Monday the KNB showed reporters a video recording of senior officials of Kazatomprom -- which is expected to become the world's biggest producer of the radioactive metal this year -- confessing to wrongdoing by themselves and Dzhakishev...

wise-uranium.org/upkz.html In Kazakhstan, uranium prospection and/or exploration is being performed by Areva, Atomredmetzoloto, Cameco Corporation, Kansai Electric Power Co.,Inc. (KEPCO), KazAtomProm, Sumitomo Corporation, Tekhsnabexport , Uran Ltd , Urasia Energy Ltd.
General
Half of Kazakhstan's uranium deposits stolen by former official, police says
The recently imprisoned former head of Kazakhstan's state nuclear power agency stole the majority of the central Asian nation's uranium deposits, security officials said Monday (June 1). Former Kazatomprom head Mukhtar Dzhakishev and other company officials illegally shifted ownership of uranium mines worth tens of billions of dollars through a network of offshore companies, the KNB security service said. (AFP June 1, 2009)

India to enter joint venture for uranium mining in Kazakhstan
India and Kazakhstan are expected to engage in joint extraction of natural uranium in this central Asian country after the two sides conclude the proposed inter-governmental agreement for cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The two sides have signed a memorandum envisaging cooperation in "joint extraction of natural uranium in Kazakhstan" apart from delivery of fuel for reactors in India, Mukhtar Dzhakishev, President of the National Atomic company Kazatomprom was quoted as saying by 'Khabar' news agency. (Kazinform Feb. 9, 2009)...

bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid...yfuYnwFqsU June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Mukhtar Dzhakishev, the former president of Kazakh state-run nuclear energy company Kazatomprom, and Mukhtar Ablyazov, the ousted chairman of BTA Bank, created offshore companies to embezzle money from uranium sales, the Kazakh National Security Committee said.

The security committee, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said that from 2004 to 2006 Dzhakishev and Ablyazov founded companies including UrAsia London Ltd. and Jeffcott Group Ltd., whose assets were later acquired by Canada’s Uranium One Inc.

The offshore companies then created joint ventures including TOO Kyzylkum and TOO Betpak Dala, which acquired the mining rights to the Kharasan, Akdala and South Inkai uranium deposits “free of charge,” the security committee said on its Web site today. The deposits in question contain more than 200,000 metric tons of uranium worth tens of billions of dollars, it said...

silkroadintelligencer.com/2...anium-one/ (bne) - The president of Kazatomprom and several top managers face criminal charges, and Canadian miner Uranium One saw its share price plunge nearly 40% on May 27 when Kazakhstan’s state nuclear firm became embroiled in a financial scandal.

Other foreign investors could now fall under suspicion as the investigation into the sale of Kazakhstan’s nuclear assets widens.

By Clare Nuttall (business new europe)

Mukhtar Dzhakishev was sacked from his long-held post as head of Kazatomprom on May 21 on the recommendation of Kazakhstan’s General Prosecutor’s Office, and subsequently arrested. A statement from the National Security Committee (KNB) - Kazakhstan’s successor to the KGB - issued on May 27 said that a preliminary investigation has produced enough evidence to suspect seven other high-ranking Kazatomprom officials. “The preliminary probe suggests that Mukhtar Dzhakishev and other top managers of the national company abused their authority and caused damage to the state through misuse of state property in form of shares in the major uranium fields,” a statement from the KNB said. “They allegedly disposed of the uranium companies’ shares for the benefit of a number of offshore companies.”...

spacewar.com/reports/Half_o...e_999.html
The recently imprisoned former head of Kazakhstan's state nuclear power agency stole the majority of the Central Asian nation's uranium deposits, security officials alleged on Monday.
Former Kazatomprom head Mukhtar Dzhakishev and other company officials illegally shifted ownership of uranium mines worth tens of billions of dollars through a network of offshore companies, the KNB security service said.

"Our information confirms the illegal tranfer of more than 60 percent of the state's uranium deposits into the property of Dzhakishev and the companies he owned," a KNB spokesman told reporters in the capital Astana...