The accession of Skhidny Mining and Processing Plant to National Nuclear Energy Generating Company Energoatom will have a positive effect on the former’s performance, but it must be preceded by a number of measures, including the corporatization of Energoatom, Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko has said.
“We are working out this way of joining. To do this, we need to take certain actions, in particular, to properly corporatize Energoatom. We are moving in this direction,” he said during question hour in the Verkhovna Rada on Friday.
At the same time, the minister said Skhidny Mining and Processing Plant, represented by Energoatom, has a single counterparty, and the support from the General Company “will solve many issues.”
As reported, at the end of October 2021, Head of Energoatom Petro Kotin noted the impossibility of merging the company with Skhidny Mining and Processing Plant due to its loss, but at the same time expressed hope for financial recovery of the company with the appointment of new head on October 6 Serhiy Shovheli.
Haluschenko earlier said Skhidny Mining and Processing Plant could not join Energoatom. He cited the EBRD and Euratom loans as the reason. However, he said that an alternative to accession could be a transfer to the management, which is working on the ministry.
At the same time, the minister considers it quite logical that Energoatom wants to gain control over Skhidny Mining and Processing Plant when it spends money on it.
The concept of stabilization and further development of Skhidny Mining and Processing Plant by transferring it to Energoatom provided for financial contributions to it by the generating company by reducing the contributions of part of the net profit to the state budget, the Ministry of Energy said at the time.
The state-owned enterprise Skhidny Mining and Processing Plant in 2021 reduced the production of uranium oxide concentrate (UOC) by 38.9% (by 289.07 tonnes) compared to 2020, to 454.63 tonnes.
According to the company’s data on the unified public portal of open data, 32.17 tonnes of UOC were produced in January, 31.37 tonnes in February, 49.8 tonnes in March, 37.8 tonnes in April, and 41.57 tonnes in May, 35.1 tonnes in in June, 52.3 tonnes in July, nothing in August, 60.14 tonnes in September, 33.28 tonnes in October, 18.1 tonnes in November, 63 tonnes in December.
In addition, in January 2022, the production of uranium concentrate by the enterprise amounted to 24.6 tonnes.
Skhidny Mining is the only enterprise in Ukraine and the largest enterprise in Europe for the extraction and processing of uranium ore. The annual demand of Ukrainian NPPs for uranium concentrate is about 22,400 tonnes.
SOE Skhidny Mining in 2020 reduced the production of uranium oxide concentrate by 7.1% (or by 57.2 tonnes) compared to 2019, to 743.7 tonnes, according to the information from the unified public open data portal.
According to the enterprise, 93.6 tonnes of uranium concentrate were produced in January, 21.9 tonnes in February, 96 tonnes in March, 90 tonnes in April, 40 tonnes in May, 74.2 tonnes in June, and 86 tonnes in July, 77.3 tonnes in August, 58.4 tonnes in September, 7 tonnes in October, 92.5 tonnes in November, and 6.8 tonnes in December.
The deterioration of production indicators over the past two years was due to the periodic withdrawal of the company’s divisions to a forced downtime.
As reported, Skhidny Mining in 2019 reduced the production of uranium oxide concentrate by 32.1% (by 378.6 tonnes) compared to 2018, to 800.9 tonnes.
Skhidny Mining is the only uranium ore mining and processing enterprise in Ukraine and the largest in Europe.
