Kazakhstan is now the world's biggest uranium producer

Kazakhstan has announced that it has overtaken Canada and Australia to become the world's biggest uranium producer. This central Asian republics announcement comes even as uranium producers around the world increase production to serve a resurgent global nuclear power industry.

Image: Cogema Inc

The announcement also came as allegations surfaced that Kazakhstan was close to clinching a $450m deal to sell 1,350 tons of uranium to Iran. Both countries denied the charge. Exports of purified uranium to Iran are forbidden because of United Nations resolutions which seek to penalise Tehran for refusing to freeze its uranium enrichment programme.

The report, also comes at a time when Mukhtar Dzhakishev, former president of Kazatomprom, the state atomic power company of Kazakhstan, goes on trial in a closed court next week on charges of profiting from illegal sale of state uranium assets.

In its announcement Kazatomprom said uranium production had increased by 63 per cent to reach at least 13,900 tons in 2009. This would amount to about one-third of the world's output.

It also said Kazakhstan's uranium output would rise to 18,000 tons next year.

The dramatic increase in output comes even as nations around the world embark on ambitious nuclear energy programmes which vastly increasing their size.