Tokyo Electric, Toshiba to Buy Stake in Uranium Miner

A group of Japanese companies led by Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Toshiba Corp. will buy a stake in Canada’s Uranium One Inc., gaining access to the miner’s output.

Uranium One agreed to sell a stake worth about C$270 million ($221 million), or C$2.30 a share, to the venture, Japan Uranium Management Inc, the miner said in a statement on its Web site. The group, which includes the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, will hold 19.95 percent of the miner and have the right to buy up to 20 percent of its output.

Japanese utilities are stepping up efforts to buy stakes in uranium mines as they compete for supplies with China and India, the world’s first- and second-fastest growing major economies. Japan, the third-biggest nuclear generator, plans to add 13 more reactors in a decade, according to the Federation of Power Companies of Japan.

“Uranium One is very pleased to partner with” Japan, the company’s president, Jean Nortier, said in the statement. “We will benefit from the consortium’s knowledge and expertise in the nuclear industry, from its high-level relationships in Kazakhstan and from its significant financial resources.”

Uranium One, with mines in Kazakhstan, Australia and South Africa, produced about 770 metric tons of uranium in 2007. The stock dipped below C$1 a share in October in line with sliding ore values. Shares in the Vancouver-based company closed at C$2.01 on Feb. 9. Uranium prices last year slumped as low as $45 a pound from a record $138 in June 2007.

This is the second uranium project in which Tokyo Electric and Toshiba have jointly invested. In 2007 they drilled the Kharasa mine in Southern Kazakhstan together with Chubu Electric Power Co., Tohoku Electric Power Co., Marubeni Corp and a local partner.