By Rod Nickel
TORONTO, March 6 (Reuters) - China's CGN Mining Co Limited
1164.HK , the first direct Chinese investor in a Canadian
uranium project, is interested in buying stakes in more Canadian
companies, a company official said on Sunday.
CGN bought a nearly 20 percent stake for C$82.2 million
($61.63 million) in Fission Uranium Corp FCU.TO , Fission said
in December.
"Of course we have interest but it depends on their price,"
said Jianhua Xing, deputy general manager of CGN Uranium
Resources Co Ltd, when asked about companies such as NexGen
Energy Ltd NXE.V and Mines Denison DML.TO , which have
uranium development projects in northern Saskatchewan.
"We don't have a specific plan. We're not in a hurry," he
said in an interview on Sunday in Toronto during the annual
Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC)
convention.
China is briskly building a fleet of new reactors that will
operate on nuclear fuel.
There are limits, however, on foreign involvement in
Canada's uranium industry.
Canada does not allow foreign companies to be majority
investors in operating uranium mines, although it has made
exceptions for France's Areva SA AREVA.PA and Australia's
Paladin Energy Ltd PDN.AX .
CGN has raised the issue of foreign investment with Canada's
embassy in Beijing, but will accept Canada's position, CGN's
Jianhua Xing said.
CGN, a uranium trader, is controlled by China Uranium
Development Company Ltd, a subsidiary of state-owned China
General Nuclear Power Corporation.
Uranium supplies are expected to run thin in coming years as
Japanese reactors start up and China expands its nuclear power
generation.
Kelowna, British Columbia-based Fission is developing the
Triple R uranium deposit at Patterson Lake South in northern
Saskatchewan. It and Mines Denison DML.TO called off a C$483
million merger agreement in October due to opposition from
Fission's shareholders.
($1 = 1.3338 Canadian dollars)