Uranium production from the Inkai joint venture in Kazakhstan is forecast to increase by more than 25% this year, according to a new NI 43-101 technical report filed by 40%-owner Cameco. The operation is forecast to reach maximum production of 10.4 million pounds U3O8 per year in 2020.

Finnish multi-metal company Terrafame has been granted permission by the country's nuclear regulator to recover a small quantity of uranium while it experiments with chemical processes it will use in an actual uranium recovery plant. The company plans to start producing uranium as a by-product from its Sotkamo mine towards the end of 2019.

A 20-year ban on the mining of uranium near the Grand Canyon has been upheld by the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. The court ruling effectively confirmed that the ban is lawful and the government has the power to impose it.

A restructuring of the Inkai joint venture between Cameco and KazAtomProm has closed and will take effect on 1 January, the companies announced yesterday. The restructuring will see KazAtomProm increase its share in the joint venture, which owns and operates the Inkai in-situ leach uranium project in southern Kazakhstan, to 60%.

Recent announcements of production cuts by the world's two biggest uranium producers - Cameco and KazAtomProm - have been greeted as positive developments by mining companies.

NAC KazAtomProm will reduce planned uranium production by 20% to better align output with demand, the company announced today. The cuts will be enacted for a period of three years beginning in January 2018, it added.

US uranium production for 2017 to date is down 17% from the same period in 2016, according to the US Energy Information Administration's latest quarterly Domestic Uranium Production Report. Meanwhile, the US Geological Survey has found uranium-bearing calcrete formations in the USA for the first time.

A recently completed process optimisation study has shown how Bannerman Resources can save an estimated $73 million in capital costs at its Etango uranium project. The study forms the first part of Bannerman's update of the definitive feasibility study for its 95%-owned Namibian project.

Energy Fuels is to sell its North Reno Creek uranium project in Wyoming to Uranium Energy Corporation for $5.39 million. The property is adjacent to the fully permitted Reno Creek project acquired by UEC earlier this year and the sale consolidates UEC's position in the region.

Peninsula Energy has started the process to amend the licence and permits for its Lance in-situ leach uranium project in Wyoming, after laboratory tests showed that using an acidic rather than alkaline mining solution could potentially transform the project's operating performance and costs.

Multi-metal company Terrafame has decided to apply to the Finnish government for a permit to recover uranium as a by-product from the Sotkamo mine. In 2015, the company acquired the business operations and assets of Talvivaara Sotkamo Ltd, which had planned to start uranium production at the mine in north-eastern Finland.

Laramide Resources Ltd has announced a maiden independent mineral resource estimate for its 100% owned Church Rock project in New Mexico. The estimate of over 50 million pounds U3O8 in inferred resources supersedes historical estimates for the purposes of NI 43-101 reporting for the property, which Laramide acquired earlier this year.