Time for change at Uranium One
Uranium One expects to complete restructuring the operations of its Toronto head office, including the relocation of major functions to Moscow, by the middle of 2015. The company is now under the leadership of CEO Feroz Ashraf.
The Canada-based uranium producer was purchased by Russia's Atomredmetzoloto (ARMZ) in 2013 and subsequently delisted from the Toronto stock exchange, completing the delisting process earlier this year. The corporation's former executive vice president and chief operating officer Ashraf was appointed CEO in April, on the departure of his predecessor Chris Sattler. ARMZ is the uranium mining subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom.
The restructuring currently underway in Uranium One's Toronto office follows the termination of its Canadian statutory reporting obligations, and is being undertaken to rationalize costs and increase integration with its Russian parent. The head office's finance, internal audit, information technology, human resources, technical services and certain legal functions will relocate to Moscow, and the Toronto office will be reduced in size accordingly, by the end of the second quarter of this year.
Uranium One has uranium assets in Kazakhstan, the USA, Australia and Tanzania. Only the operations in Kazakhstan and the USA are currently in production. According to its first-quarter 2015 report, attributable uranium production for the quarter was 3.0 million pounds U3O8 (1154 tU), almost all from Kazakh operations with 0.1 million pounds (38 tU) from the Willow Creek project in the USA. The company's total 2014 attributable uranium production from its operations in Kazakhstan and the USA totalled 10.4 million pounds (4000 tU).
It confirmed that measures imposed by the governments of the USA, Canada and the European Union on "certain individuals and entities considered to have contributed to the situation in Ukraine" had not affected its business. "The corporation’s operations have not been impacted by the foregoing orders, directives or regulations or any designations made thereunder and the Corporation continues to carry on business as usual," it said.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News
