Press Release: IAEA Workshop Safe Management of Residues from Former Mining and Milling Activities in Central Asia

A five-day workshop organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in association with the Atomic Energy Committee of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the support of the National Atomic Company Kazatomprom is closing today on October 21, 2005. The workshop falls under IAEA's project of technical cooperation "Safe Management of Residues from Former Mining and Milling Activities in Central Asia".

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, uranium mining facilities in Central Asia shut down due to poor economics. And the waste they generated in the past raises concern of the world industry community today.

The IAEA's project is aimed at identifying vexed technological, environmental and economical problems of waste management by the uranium production facilities, engage experts from the respective organizations and enterprises to solve the problems and exchange their experience.

The participants of the workshop review the matters of monitoring tailing ponds, disposed waste and abandoned facilities. The seminar attracted a larger number of specialists representing the uranium industry in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan as compared to the previous seminar in Dushanbe in June, IAEA experts noted.

Kazatomprom operates a unique technology of the most environmentally friendly and cost effective method of uranium production known as in-situ leaching.