Kazatomprom, which makes more uranium than any other company in the world, saw its net profit go up in the first half of the year due to higher prices for the heavy metal on the market. However, it cut its production goals for the next year because of problems with building.
The earnings of the Kazakhstani state-owned miner KAP 7.17% rose 27% to 283.2 billion Kazakhstani tenge ($590.1 million) on Friday. This was due to higher prices for the metal that powers nuclear reactors, which also caused sales to rise 13% to 701.1 billion tenge.
Uranium prices have gone through the roof this year because nuclear energy has become seen as a way to address both energy security worries and goals for reducing carbon emissions. Uranium is also in short supply. Prices at the spot market are almost $80 a pound right now. In January, they hit their highest level in 16 years.
Kazatomprom’s costs of sales also went up a lot—38% to 443.36 billion tenge—because they made more and the price of uranium they got from joint-ventures and associates went up. As a result, their operating profit went down by 10% to 226.72 billion tenge.
Kazatomprom warned again that building at new deposits was still behind schedule and that sulfuric acid, which is used to get uranium out of underground deposits, was hard to come by.
Because of this, the miner lowered their guess for next year’s uranium supply from 30,500 to 31,500 tons to between 25,000 and 26,500 tons. It raised its goals for this year to between 22,500 and 23,500 tons earlier this month.
The company also said that Sultan Temirbayev, its Chief Financial Officer, was leaving his job. He did so on August 19 after one year in the position. Marat Tulebayev, a former long-time worker who most recently was CEO of Kazakhstan Investment Development Fund, will take over after him.
