Uranium ore deposits. A private company is applying for development rights.
16 February 15:20
The Interdepartmental Commission for the Organization of Conclusion and Implementation of Production Sharing Agreements (IC PSA) is considering an appeal from a Ukrainian private company owned by Gennady Butkevich, co-owner of the ATB chain of stores, regarding the announcement of tenders for four uranium ore deposits in the Mykolaiv and Kirovohrad regions.
This was reported by Nadra.Info, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
The AESU is focusing on four subsoil areas with uranium ore deposits in the Mykolaiv and Kirovohrad regions: the Safonivska area, the Sadova area, the Severynske deposit, and the Pidhaitsivske deposit.
Gennady Butkevich, co-owner of the ATB chain and founder of BGV Group, is awaiting permits from the state to extract uranium and is ready to start the process within 1.5-2 years after receiving them.
The AESU sent a letter regarding the initiation of PSA competitions to the Interdepartmental Commission at the end of November 2025, and it was considered during the commission’s meeting on December 15, 2025 (on this day, the applications of the PSA competition participants for the Dobra lithium ore site were also disclosed).
As of January, no decision had been made on the application.
“So far, they haven’t said anything. The ball is in their court, and has been for a long time,” said Butkevych.
According to the publication, at the end of January, the interdepartmental commission was again to consider the AESU’s appeal, but no final decision was made.
The aforementioned subsoil plots are included in the list of deposits of strategic/critical importance, which will be made available for use through a competition for the conclusion of a production sharing agreement.
The Podgayskoye and Severinskoye fields are located in the Kropyvnytskyi district of the Kirovograd region, the Sadovaya Ploshchad field is in the Pervomaisky district of the Mykolaiv region, and the Safonovskaya section is in the Bashtansky district of the Mykolaiv region.
BGV Group Management is set to enter into PSAs for these deposits together with foreign partners, who are not currently being disclosed. The founder of the Group explains the delay in announcing the PSA tenders by a certain distrust of the state towards private initiatives in the field of uranium ore mining:
“No one can develop them on their own. It’s just that in the West they believe in us, but here in Ukraine — not so much. We have many partners in the West who are waiting for us to resolve this issue. No foreign investor will come on their own until there is a local partner. We have completed exploration in Safonivka, conducted a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS), and resolved the land issue—we are all set for mining! But we were told that there should only be a state-owned mining company. We were given a license for exploration, we did everything, but we were told, “We won’t give you a license for production!” We spent $5.5 million, and that’s it,” says Gennady Butkevich.
Atomic Energy Systems of Ukraine LLC is the only private company in Ukraine that had special permits for geological exploration and experimental industrial development of uranium ore deposits (Safonivska site, Mykhailivska area, Novohurivska site, Sursk area). All four sites were granted for use without auction, according to a decision by the Kyiv District Administrative Court. That decision required the State Geological Service to consider AESU’s applications for five sites: in addition to those mentioned, also the Sadova site. However, in November 2018, four sites, excluding Sadova, were included in the order of the then acting head of the State Geological Service, Oleg Kirilyuk. They were granted for use “for the term of the lease of the entire property complex until November 5, 2021.” In February 2020, the new head of the Service, Roman Opimakh, refused to grant permission for the Sadova area.
In July 2020, AESU announced that the company had “compiled a resource report on the uranium deposit in accordance with the international requirements of the JORC code” for the first time in Ukraine. Reserves in the Safonivskyi deposit were estimated at 4,700 tons. However, they were unable to proceed with mining: in October 2021, the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine refused to grant Gennady Butkevich’s company a special permit for the extraction of uranium ore from the Safonivskyi deposit “due to the discovery of inaccurate data in the submitted documents.” The AESU called the State Geological Service’s refusal to issue a special permit “unfounded.” In the end, the special permit for extraction was never granted. In November 2021, the term of AESU’s special permits for geological exploration expired. And in December of the same year, the Supreme Court overturned the decisions of the lower courts, on the basis of which AESU had obtained special permits in 2018, effectively declaring their issuance illegal. AESU tried to force Derzhgeonadra through the courts to grant a permit for uranium ore mining in the Safonivska area. The case was heard in 2021, and in September 2025, the claim was denied, which, according to the court register, was not appealed.
Uranium is included in the list of minerals/useful components, new projects for the extraction of which will fill the Ukrainian-American Investment Fund for Reconstruction. Uranium ore remains the only useful mineral whose reserves data is classified after the decision to declassify reserves in 2025.
Atomic Energy Systems of Ukraine LLC is headed by IAEA expert Yuriy Bakarzhiev and controlled by Gennadiy Butkevych.
As of April 2025, other companies owned by Butkevych and his partners controlled 13 valid special permits for the use of subsoil areas with deposits of hydrocarbons, as well as graphite, titanium, zinc, beryllium, zirconium-rare earth, molybdenum ores, sand, granite, and others.
Currently, the only producer of uranium ore in Ukraine is the state-owned enterprise Eastern Mining and Processing Plant (SхідГЗК), which controls the Central, Michurinsk, Novokonstantinovsk, and Vatutinsk deposits in the Kirovograd region.
