Kazakhstan has agreed to share its uranium resources with China in exchange for equity in Chinese nuclear power facilities in a strategic deal that brings together the world’s fastest growing uranium and nuclear electricity producers.

Moukhtar Dzhakishev, the president of Kazatomprom, Kazakhstan’s state-owned nuclear power company, said: “We will swap shares in uranium production for shares in Chinese atomic facilities ... This is the first time China has allowed any foreign company to become a shareholder in its atomic power industry enterprises.”