Mumbai: The world’s biggest maker of atomic reactors, Areva SA, has offered state-run Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd (NPCIL) stakes in African uranium mines to ensure supplies for fuel-starved plants, NPCIL chairman Shreyans Kumar Jain said.

NPCIL is considering investing in as many as four mines, including projects in South Africa and Nigeria, Jain said in a telephone interview in Mumbai. Patricia Marie, a spokeswoman for Areva in Paris, didn’t immediately comment when contacted.

Some of the mines that we have been offered stakes in are already producing and some have yet to be developed, Jain said. We may invest up to 26% of the project cost, he said, declining to give more details about the mines or how much the company would spend on the proposed acquisitions.

NPCIL is also seeking long-term supply contracts from Kazakhstan, Canada and Brazil as it orders reactors worth at least $14 billion (around Rs66,000 crore) from overseas, Jain said.

—Bloomberg

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NTPC plans JV with NPCIL in three months

Mumbai: India’s biggest electricity producer, NTPC Ltd, plans to form a venture with Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd (NPCIL) in three months, chairman R.S. Sharma said in Mumbai on Friday.

—Bloomberg