PLATTS - Kazakhstan plans to produce a total of 21,600 mt of uranium in 2018, a decrease of almost 20% compared with the previously forecast 27,000 mt, Riaz Rizvi, Kazatomprom's chief commercial officer said.

U.S. EIA - During 2017, owners and operators of U.S. nuclear power plants purchased 40 million pounds of uranium from foreign suppliers. Canada, Australia, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan represented the top five countries of origin and together accounted for 84% of total U.S. uranium purchases in 2017.

REUTERS - State-owned Orano’s new plant in Tricastin, southern France, will account for a quarter of the world’s 60,000-tonne annual uranium hexafluoride (UF6) production capacity when it fully ramps up in 2021 and is set to have the industry’s lowest costs, the company said.

U.S. DC - U.S. uranium production had been 49 percent of U.S. requirements in 1987. Today, U.S. uranium production has dropped to only five percent of U.S. requirements.

WNN - For the foreseeable future, most new nuclear power technologies will still run, wholly or partially, on uranium, so it is important that this vital resource is mined, produced and managed sustainably, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano said this week. It is also essential to take full account of environmental concerns, "both to ensure public acceptance today and to avoid troubling legacy issues in the future", he added.

WNN - India is planning a tenfold increase in uranium production over the next 15 years, Minister of State Jitendra Singh told the country's parliament yesterday. State company Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) has outlined expansion plans to meet the Department of Atomic Energy's (DAE) vision of achieving self-sufficiency in uranium production.

EIA - U.S. uranium concentrate production totaled 2.44 million pounds in 2017, down 16% from 2016 and the lowest annual total since 2.28 million pounds of uranium concentrate was produced in 2004. Domestic concentrate production peaked at 43.7 million pounds in 1980 but has remained lower than 5 million pounds annually since 1997.