The sale is part of Kazatomprom's complex privatisation plan running over 2016-2020, which was previously approved by the government of Kazakhstan.

The company declined to provide further details, such as the amount raised by the sale.

The investment consortium includes Russia's Yadran Solar, France's ECM Greentech and China's Kasen/Canadian Solar.

The Kazatomprom non-core entities including Astana Solar, which produces photoelectric modules used for conversion of solar energy to electric energy; Kazakhstan Solar Silicon, which produces photoelectric cells from solar purity silicon, used in photoelectric module production; and KazSilicon, which produces metallurgical silicon from the extraction and processing of gangue quartz with 98.5-99.5% silicon dioxide.

The consortium has agreed to maintain the companies' business profile, staff numbers and current salary levels, and perform to existing contracts.

The same consortium will have the option to acquire the remaining 25% in the non-core subsidiaries in three years' time, when it intends to restart the purchased companies and produce solar cells in Kazakhstan, using the high-purity quartz of the Sarykol deposit from the Almaty region.

The locally-produced photovoltaic modules will then be used in the construction of solar stations in Kazakhstan and neighbouring countries.