Kazatomprom holds 2026 uranium volume guidance and raises its cost guidance
Kazatomprom says it is keeping its 2026 uranium production and sales volume guidance for now, while revising its 2026 financial guidance, including a higher attributable cash cost range.
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This is a cost revision rather than a supply revision: the volume ranges hold while the cost range moves up. Both the raised range and the plant timetable are the company's own expectations, not settled outcomes, and the permit decision rests with the state.
Reporting first-half results on August 21, Kazatomprom said it is keeping its 2026 production and sales volume guidance “at this time” while revising all of its 2026 financial guidance.
The volume ranges hold at 27,500 to 29,000 tonnes of uranium, or 71.49 to 75.39 million pounds of U3O8, on a 100 per cent basis. First-half output was 13,291 tU.
Attributable C1 cash cost guidance rises to US$25.50 to US$27.00 a pound, from US$23.50 to US$25.00. It cited a stronger tenge and costlier materials, mainly sulphuric acid, and said the ranges may move if exchange rates and the spot price differ from its assumptions. First-half attributable C1 was US$24.48 a pound, against US$17.86 a year earlier.
Chief executive Meirzhan Yussupov, pointing to industry-wide cost pressure, said the era of “cheap” uranium “is fading away”.
Work at the TQZ sulphuric acid plant is suspended pending a state permit, after the contractor reported potential paleontological specimens. Commissioning was first targeted for the first quarter of 2027; the company now projects it for the third quarter of 2027 through the first quarter of 2028, and expects no material impact on its mining at this stage.
Sources
- Kazatomprom: Kazatomprom announces 1H2026 Financial Resultsprimary source · Published