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Several....Need to spread out properties as geopolitical risk for resource confiscation is real.

Kazakhstan says some foreign uranium deals illegal

ALMATY (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's security service on Wednesday accused the former head of the state uranium company of illegally selling uranium fields to foreign firms, citing a joint venture with Canada's Uranium One as an example.

Last week KNB, the successor service to the Soviet-era KGB, arrested Mukhtar Dzhakishev, the long-serving head of the world's leading uranium producer Kazatomprom, along with seven other executives.

"Preliminary results of the investigation show that Mukhtar Dzhakishev and other managers ... squandered state property in the form of Kazakhstan's largest uranium fields by handing them to a number of offshore companies," KNB said in a statement.

The KNB service singled out the sale of a 30 percent stake in the Kyzylkum uranium joint venture as an example of an illegal transaction. Canada's Uranium One has 30 percent in the venture while a group of Japanese firms own another 40 percent.

The rest belongs to Kazatomprom. None of the foreign companies could be reached for comment. A Kazatomprom spokesman said he had no information on the probe.

The Kyzylkum venture runs Kazakhstan's largest uranium mine, Khorasan.

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-39906420090527