The Euratom Supply Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the European Union, has approved Berkeley Energia's offtake agreement for the sale of the first production from its Salamanca uranium mine under development in Spain. The mine is expected to enter production in late 2018.

Cameco has confirmed it is evaluating the possibility of divesting its US uranium facilities, although no decision has yet been made to sell any assets. The company's combined operations at Smith Ranch-Highland in Wyoming is the largest uranium production facility in the USA.

France's Areva and China National Nuclear Corporation have signed a framework agreement for industrial and commercial cooperation in the nuclear fuel cycle.

A restructuring of Paladin Energy's balance sheet, announced in January, will position the Australia-based uranium company to increase production rather than service its debt in response to a 'normalising' uranium market, its CEO said yesterday.

Bannerman Resources Limited has completed its Etango heap leach demonstration plant project and begun work to incorporate its findings into the Namibian uranium project's definitive feasibility study.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has signed framework agreements with the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan, a precondition for the implementation of projects under an EBRD fund to deal with the remediation of former uranium mines and processing plants.

Kazakhstan plans to produce 10% less uranium in 2017 than previously planned in response to ongoing oversupply in the uranium market, Kazatomprom chairman Askar Zhumagaliyev announced today.

Industrias Nucleares do Brasil has started work on its Engenho mine in Brazil's Bahia state. The company said the move was a "decisive step" towards resumption of domestic uranium production.

Kazakhstan, producer of more than 20,000 tonnes of natural uranium per year, has welcomed security guidance recently developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Vienna-based agency said yesterday that Kazakhstan - which established a "comprehensive system for the control and physical protection of natural uranium" in 2010 - had contributed to an IAEA publication entitled Nuclear Security in the Uranium Extraction Industry and issued in February this year.

Developing production capacity to meet the world's uranium needs, rather than the availability of uranium resources, is a likely challenge over coming years according to the latest edition of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and International Atomic Energy Agency joint report on uranium resources, production and demand.

Toro Energy has redesigned the process flow sheet for its Wiluna uranium project in Western Australia to reduce the cost and size of the project's processing facility, following successful beneficiation and process design studies, the company announced today.

Officials from KazAtomProm - the world's biggest uranium producer - and the Kazakh government have visited China for talks on enhanced cooperation in the uranium mining and nuclear power sectors. The Kazakh delegation was headed by Askar Mamin, first deputy prime minister of Kazakhstan.