Head of world’s largest uranium producer dies on China visit
Mike Ouellette
Nurlan Kapparov, the 44 year-old chairman of Kazatomprom in Kazakhstan, suffered a heart attack while eating lunch
MOSCOW—Kazakhstan’s government-run news agency has reported that the head of state-run uranium producer Kazatomprom has died of a heart attack while on a visit to China.
Kazinform news agency said Kazatomprom chairman Nurlan Kapparov, 44, collapsed March 26 while having lunch at a restaurant in Beijing.
Kapparov had been at the helm of Kazatomprom, the world’s biggest uranium producer by output, since August.
The company said in a statement this month that it produced 22,800 tons of uranium in 2014, equivalent to 40 per cent of global output.
Kazakhstan last year signed a deal with China to co-operate on the construction of a nuclear fuel factory in the northern Kazakh city of Ust-Kamenogorsk to supply power plants in China.