Russia offers India 49% control of joint uranium mining projects in country, such as the proposed Elkon development. Russia’s Rosatom and India’s Uranium Corporation of India Limited have been negotiating the joint development of a large uranium reserve in the republic of Sakha, Sergei Kiriyenko, the Russian state nuclear holding’s head, said last month.
The Elkon group of uranium deposits in Sakha is second in size only to Australia’s Olympic Dam, which is being developed by BHP Billiton and contains 34 percent of the world’s known reserves of uranium. The total reserves of uranium in one of the parts of the Elkon group were evaluated this summer at 229,800 tons. Japanese and Korean companies are already reported to have signed memoranda of understanding on involvement in the project.
India’s own supplies of Uranium are fairly limited and it recently imported a large amount from France to feeds its current reactors. It is also in discussion with Kazakhstan for supplies of the radioactive metal. For its massive development of foreign technology nuclear plants, India is currently requiring the reactor maker to guarantee a lifetime supply of uranium fuel.
