Areva to Buy UraMin for $2.5 Billion - WSJ.com

Areva to Buy UraMin for $2.5 Billion - WSJ.com: "French state-owned nuclear-engineering company Areva SA agreed to acquire Canadian uranium miner UraMin Inc. for $2.5 billion.

Areva said the $7.75-a-share offer 'perfectly fits' into its strategy to significantly increase its presence in the uranium market, in which it already holds a 23% share in sales. Areva's current production of uranium is 6,000 tons a year, which it plans to double by 2011-12 from existing projects, such as those in Niger and Canada, and through the increase in production of its operations in Kazakhstan.

Olivier Mallet, Areva's senior executive vice president of mining, chemistry and enrichment, said the short-term plan to double uranium production was in place before the acquisition of UraMin and therefore didn't take its production into account. He said he expects about 7,000 tons a year of uranium to be added to Areva's production by UraMin."