BEIJING, July 6 (Reuters) - China is expected to ship home the first batch of uranium resources from Jordan next year, the Shanghai Securities News reported on Monday, citing a top executive with CNNC, China's leading nuclear power developer.
"We and other foreign firms would have opened the first uranium mine in Jordan for nearly three years, and will take home uranium in 2010," CNNC's General Manager Kang Rixin was quoted as saying during a weekend meeting.
The first batch of uranium resources was around 700 tonnes, according to a report posted on a website run by Caijing magzine (www.caijing.com.cn).
Khaled Toukan, head of Jordan's atomic energy authority, said in April that the Middle East country was working with CNNC on two uranium mining blocks and CNNC could join the bidding to build a nuclear power plant in Jordan.
CNNC's Kang said his company also cooperates with other foreign countries, including Kazakhstan, Algeria and Russia, to develop uranium resources.
CNNC International, a Hong Kong-listed firm controlled by CNNC, had recently taken over Western Prospector Group Ltd, a Mongolia-focused uranium miner.
Kang said China's own uranium resources were sufficient to meet its existing needs and enough for power generation until 2020 or longer, aided by more domestic exploration.
But overseas exploration or purchases were needed to meet increasing demand due to nuclear power expansion, Kang was quoted as saying by the Caijing report.
China has around 9.1 gigawatts (GW) of installed nuclear power generating capacity but it is considering revising its 2020 target to over 80 GW from an original plan of 40 GW to increase clean energy supplies.
China's environment is strained by its widespread use of coal, which accounts for more than 70 percent of energy supplies. (Reporting by Jim Bai and Tom Miles, Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

Source: www.guardian.co.uk