Almost 189.3 million votes separated shareholder support for two uranium contracts proposed by Kazatomprom, leaving a Russian buyer without approval while a Chinese counterparty secured authorization.
The Russian agreement with Uranium One Group received 12,248,357 votes in favor, equal to 5.39% of shares represented at the meeting. Another 14,261,586 votes, or 6.27%, were opposed. The decisive figure was the 200,867,174 shares, or 88.34%, recorded as withheld. The deal required a simple majority and failed.
Shareholders representing 227,377,117 shares, equal to 99.21% of eligible voting stock, submitted ballots, according to Kazatomprom’s announcement.
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The Chinese contract, involving State Nuclear Uranium Resource Development Company Limited (SNURDC), won 201,531,278 favorable votes, or 88.63%. Opposing votes totaled 14,757,296, while 11,088,543 were withheld.
Kazatomprom disclosed both draft contracts on August 21. Each concerned natural uranium in the form of U3O8. Uranium One, part of Russia’s Rosatom group, was to receive material at the Siberian Chemical Plant in Russia. SNURDC, a subsidiary of China’s State Power Investment Corporation, was to take delivery at the Alashankou railway station.
The company said pricing, volumes, and delivery schedules were confidential in both cases. Its October voting announcement included no transaction values, revised sales guidance, or estimate of revenue affected by the Russian contract’s failure.
The differing votes come amid an earlier change in ownership of Kazakh uranium assets. In December 2024, Kazatomprom reported that Uranium One sold its 49.979% interest in the Zarechnoye joint venture to SNURDC Astana Mining, whose ultimate owner is SNURDC. Kazatomprom’s interest remained unchanged.
Uranium One also planned to sell interests in two other Kazakh ventures to a Chinese buyer affiliated with China General Nuclear Power Corporation. Kazatomprom subsequently confirmed those sales had closed, although Uranium One remained a partner in other ventures cited in the August 2026 meeting notice.
Kazatomprom attributed roughly 20% of global primary uranium production in 2025 to its own share of output. The scale makes its relationships with nuclear-fuel buyers significant, but the vote neither establishes the value of either contract nor demonstrates an immediate shift in export volumes.
Shareholders approved the meeting’s third resolution, a board appointment representing the Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund, by 96.26%. The Russian supply agreement was the sole resolution that failed, with mass abstention rather than majority opposition determining the outcome.
