While Western attention focuses on the rising oil and natural gas potential of Caspian states, rising energy player Kazakhstan has another energy asset up its sleeve: uranium.

Kazakhstan contains the world's second-largest uranium reserves, estimated at 1.5 million tons. In 2006 it produced 5,279 tons of uranium, 21 percent more than in 2005, and intends in 2007 to increase uranium production 31 percent to 6,937 tons, according to the country’s Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. Kazakhstan is the world's No. 3 uranium miner, exceeded only by Australia and Canada; the three countries account for more than half of global uranium production.

If market indicators are any gauge, Kazakhstan may soon become as big an international player in the global uranium market as it is in the oil sphere. All indications are there. Uranium prices have increased 1,000 percent in just five years and seem set to rise further. In 2001 a pound of uranium sold for between $5 and $10; current spot prices are $105 per pound.

The Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets noted in a recent study, "Investing in Uranium Companies," that mining remains in the middle of a uranium bull market with an average $100 per pound price this year, further asserting that a supply gap will exist in uranium after 2013. Australia’s Macquarie Bank’s stock-broking division is even more bullish, projecting that by 2009 uranium prices might rise to $200 a pound.

Driving uranium prices upward are record-high oil prices and rising demand for the fuel, particularly from Asia. South Korea relies on nuclear energy to produce 45 percent of the country’s electricity, and Japan is not far behind, relying on nuclear power for 30 percent of its energy needs.