Working at KAP
Most companies celebrate milestone birthdays, but Kazatomprom does it right. And every year is a milestone and reason for an event (this was #23...)!
The all-day Sunday event was at a resort about 45 mins outside of town at Балкарагай (Balkaragay).
And the celebration rivaled a wedding...where I didn't understand the toasts or the hosts...
Company was split into about 10 teams (about 80% turnout of ~500 employees) and competed in numerous team building events...with all directions in Russian.
Followed by food. Tons and tons of food...
A week later was the big corporate "Info Day" in Ust'-Kamenogorsk (where Kazatomprom has the Ulba Metallurgical Plant). Event was internally broadcast...and ended with the finals of the company-wide "Kazatomprom's got talent" show (every subsidiary had competitions since May building up to the company finals).
Food and shopping
On the way back from the company birthday, a friend stopped at "Metro" for me - representing the closest thing here to a Walmart/Costco! Finally, everything in one store rather than one store for each type of item...
It's a great time of year at the stores...where tourist season is coming to an end, so everything seems to be >50% off. Pale blue is the THE color in Kazakhstan - especially for business. I love the menswear stores...what shade of pale blue shirt are you after today?
Running around got easier with access to some bikes. Not big on the speed demon Honda CBR...
But the Russian "Racer" dirt bike is great...
Took a trip to a nearby village...
Ok, maybe closer to civilization then I let on...
The dirt-track village is just off the parking lot behind my flat. It's such an extreme contract - poverty stricken "urban-rural" environment right next to a LaCoste and Hilfiger store...
Travel and trends
As I'm keeping close tabs on the market and training up my team on running a world-class IR function to international standards, I've taken note of some very telling trends.
Exhibit A - Here's the uranium price history...
Exhibit B - Earlier this year...I made a choice...
Exhibit C - I arrived in Kazakhstan, and joined Kazatomprom. There was a slight hiccup while I was away in North America. But I got it back on track.
It's all right there in the data! (To my Cameco friends - just kidding...).
With an extremely busy September coming up, I'm squeezing a quick Saskatoon trip in before the end of summer...which will take my career commercial flight total to just under 600,000 km. Yes, as a nerd, I've kept a spreadsheet of every drill hole # I've logged and mapped, distances and locations I've traversed as a geologist, and cities visited in IR and insurance, since Jan 6, 2003...
