341 KEPCO
See also - Info on Ranger's Contracts. As the chief provider of uranium fuel for one of the most aggressive nuclear power programmes in the world, Kepco (it was formerly KEKO/Korean Electric Co) has not only entered into supply contracts with Australian and Canadian mining companies, but is itself part of a JV in Gabon.
In 1979, KEKO signed a contract for the supply of 2,270 tonnes of U3O8 from the Ranger mine in Australia to be delivered between 1983 and 1992 (1).
The same year, it arranged a US$294 million contract with Norcen and Lacana which fell into abeyance after the British Columbia moratorium on uranium mining (see Norcen).
Early the following year, KEKO signed a contract for the delivery of more than 4 million pounds of U3O8 between 1981 and 1990 from Rio Algom at Elliott Lake (2).
Also in 1980, KEKO formed a]V (41%) with Cogema (49%) and the Gabonese government (10%) to explore for uranium in the Lordleyon region of the African state (3).
In April 1980, the United Nuclear Corporation - America's largest producer of uranium - contracted to supply KEKO with more than 3,000,000 lb of uranium oxide between 1980 and 1985 (4).
Along with Anschutz (50%) and Taiwan Power, (25%) KEKO (sic) began drilling for uranium at an undisclosed site in Paraguay in 1982 (5).
By 1984, Kepco had purchased 4.5% of the equity in the Dawn Lake JV from SMDC with whom it already had contracts for supplies from Key Lake for its "ambitious nuclear power generating programme". It was also "intensively seeking new uranium markets in Japan" (6).
In 1987, Kepco secured a small, but important, contract for the supply of 170 tons a year between 1993 and 2002 (possibly 2012) for US$150 million, and the purchase of a 2% non-voting interest in the Cigar Lake JV from SMDC (7).
By 1986, nuclear power accounted for 43.8% of South Korea's power generation, and was rising rapidly to around fifty per cent (8).
Kepco's long-term contracts in 1988 amounted to 1,300 tonnes a year until 1991, including the Cameco, and ERA contracts already mentioned, 212 tonnes/year from Roxby Downs, starting delivery in 1987, and output from the company's 2% share of Cigar Lake, and 20% in the Crow Butte project (see Ferret) (8).
In 1990 Kepco reached agreement - not without controversy - with the Soviet Union for the supply of 40 tonnes per year of 3.5% enriched uranium, commencing in 1990 and lasting until 2000 (9). This deal was imprudently signposted by the Mining Journal as potentially useful to the military (10). In an apology published shortly afterwards, the MJ quoted Kepco as maintaining that the contract was fully covered by both bilateral and IAEA safeguards (11).
The same year, the South Korean regime announced that Kepco would be partly privatised with 21% of the government holding put on the market (12).
SOURCE: "The Gulliver File - Mines, people and land: a global battleground" by Roger Moody.
Published in 1992 by Minewatch, 218 Liverpool Road, London Nl ILE, UK, and WISE-Glen Aplin, Po Box 87, Glen Aplin Q 4381, Australia.
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