[TVEL, 13 April] TVEL expects to be granted licences for the right to develop five uranium deposits in the Buryatia region of Russia. The deposits - Istochnoye, Kolichkanskoye, Dybrynskoye, Namarusskoye and Koretkondinskoye - have proven reserves of 17,700 tonnes of uranium, with probable reserves of a further 12,200 tonnes. A bidding process for the licences was launched in December 2006. All five deposits are near to TVEL's existing Khiagda in-situ leach (ISL) uranium mine, which has a design capacity of 1000 tonnes of uranium per year. Under one of TVEL's development options, output from the Khiagda mine, which is currently operating on a pilot scale, could be increased up to 2000 tonnes per year by 2015 through an expansion into the nearby deposits. TVEL expects to produce a total of 3400 tonnes of uranium in 2007.

Further information

TVEL

WNA's Nuclear Power in Russia information paper