AREVA and KAZATOMPROM sign a Fuel marketing joint venture agreement

AREVA CEO Anne Lauvergeon and KAZATOMPROM President Vladimir Shkolnik signed today an agreement to create a Fuel Marketing Joint Venture named IFASTAR. The signing took place during the official visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Astana (Kazakhstan).

This agreement follows the signature of a Framework Agreement in September 2009, and reinforce the partnership between both companies in the front-end cycle. It confirms AREVA and KAZATOMPROM strategy to develop their positions reaching together the largest uranium production in the world.

Under the terms of the agreement, the newly created Paris-based IFASTAR will be owned jointly by AREVA (51%) and KAZATOMPROM (49%). The mission of IFASTAR is to perform a Feasibility Study consisting of two parts:

• The assessment of the Asian market in view of selling integrated fuel packages (including all front-end segments and combining KAZATOMPROM’s uranium resources and AREVA’s fuel technology) to electric utilities operating in Asia,
• The assessment of the technical and economical feasibility of the construction of a dedicated fuel manufacturing line (400 tU/year) located at KAZATOMPROM‘s Ulba Metallurgical Plant (UMP) site in Ust-Kamenogorsk (Kazakhstan).

Depending on the results of the assessment, and after decision of the partners, IFASTAR would run the sales of the products from this line while the fuel manufacturing itself would be performed by another joint venture, owned jointly by KAZATOMPROM (51%) and AREVA (49%).

"The signing comes as a further result of a constructive long term relationship between KAZATOMPROM and AREVA and is, for us a further milestone in establishing a vertically integrated company, producing a value added product – fuel assemblies," Vladimir Shkolnik said.

Anne Lauvergeon commented: "This agreement reinforces the strategic partnership between AREVA and KAZATOMPROM. It will contribute to the diversification and security of our supplies by increasing available Uranium resources for our customers."