Kazakhstan revokes $54.5M arbitration award to Canadian junior

Kazakhstan has overturned a $54.5 million arbitral award previously granted to World Wide Minerals Ltd. (WWM), a Canadian junior miner, in relation to a terminated uranium processing project. 

This marks the second time the award has been set aside, prolonging a dispute that has spanned over two decades.

The conflict dates back to the late 1990s when WWM invested in Kazakhstan’s uranium industry, managing and operating one of the country’s largest uranium-processing facilities. The company entered into agreements with the Kazakh government, committing resources to modernize the nation’s uranium processing capabilities. 

Subsequent actions by the Kazakh authorities, including the revocation of necessary licenses and the imposition of bureaucratic hurdles, led to the suspension of WWM’s operations and the eventual confiscation of its assets.

In October 2019, an international arbitration tribunal found Kazakhstan in breach of international law and the Canada-USSR Bilateral Investment Treaty, awarding WWM over $40 million in damages, with total compensation exceeding $50 million when including legal costs. 

Kazakhstan challenged this decision, and in November 2020, the English High Court set aside the quantum findings of the arbitral award, remitting issues concerning causation and the quantification of loss back to the tribunal for reconsideration. 

World Wide Minerals will now have to submit an appeal to an arbitral tribunal for a third time. 

“World Wide Minerals strongly disagrees with the High Court’s ruling and is deeply disappointed that the Court has again interfered with the company’s decades-long efforts to obtain justice for Kazakhstan’s proven violation of the relevant investment treaty,” president and CEO Ann Marie Carroll said.

The fresh cancellation of the award underscores the complexities foreign investors may encounter in Kazakhstan’s mining sector, particularly within its uranium industry.