OREANDA-NEWS. October 5, 2009. Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation is ready to buy low-cost uranium deposits in case of favorable market conditions, a source from Rosatom said.

Russia has enough uranium for the moment and can meet its demand for 100 years ahead.

At the same time, today it is a good moment for the country to enlarge its influence on the uranium market. A number of foreign companies have fallen in price by 10 times. “We want to buy these assets as long as we can do it,” the source said.

The source said that there are three cost categories for uranium assets: USD 40 per 1 kg, USD 60–80 per 1 kg and over USD 80 per 1 kg.

In Russia the cost of uranium assets ranges within USD 60 per 1 kg.

“We believe that we must urgently buy deposits with uranium production cost less than USD 40 per 1 kg or a bit more,” the source said.

Regarding Elkon uranium deposit in Yakutia, the source said: “We do not need uranium from that deposit for the time being but we must start it up. We are successfully negotiating this project with potential investors.”

As was reported earlier, Elkon Mining Combine in Yakutia is supposed to reach full capacity in 2015–2016 with almost 2bln RUR to be invested in this project in 2009–2010. 51% of the company’s shares will belong to the Russian Government. Investors will be involved in individual projects.

Director General of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation Sergey Kiriyenko said that among the potential investors are Mitsui, EDF, Korean and Japanese companies. Elkon Mining Complex is being built by Atomredmetzoloto OJSC, the uranium mining division of Atomenergoprom. As soon as set at full capacity, the combine will produce up to ? of uranium to be used by the nuclear industry.

The uranium reserves of Yakutia total 319,000 tons (6% of the world’s reserves). Elkon uranium district is one of the biggest in the world (5.3% of the global uranium production).