Shareholders in Canada-based Uranium One voted yesterday in favour of a deal to sell a controlling stake in the company to Russian state-owned mining company Atomredmetzoloto (ARMZ) in exchange for cash and shares in two Kazakh mines.
At the meeting held in Vancouver, 95 percent of the total votes cast supported the deal, Uranium One said.
The deal, first announced in early June 2010, will see ARMZ pay Uranium One about 600 million US dollars (480 million euro) in cash, plus a 50 percent interest in the Akbastau uranium mine and a 49.67 interest in the Zarechnoye mine, both in southern Kazakhstan. The remainder of each mine is government owned.
The deal remains subject to receipt of remaining required regulatory approvals and to the satisfaction of other usual and customary closing conditions, Uranium One said.
ARMZ is a subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom, which already controls 40 percent of the world’s uranium enrichment capacity and 17 percent of the fuel fabrication market.
Rosatom supplies fuel for 74 nuclear reactors in 15 countries and says it is in talks to build up to 20 nuclear units.
