Canada and India signed a uranium-supply agreement on Wednesday that will see Saskatchewan’s Cameco Inc. provide the mineral to India over the next five years.

The contract, for 7.1 million pounds of uranium concentrate, marks the Canadian uranium producer’s first deal with India and comes as the South Asian country aims to greatly increase its electricity supply over the next 25 years, in part by relying on nuclear power.

“Cameco will supply Saskatchewan uranium for India’s atomic energy program over the next five years,” said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who announced the deal at a news conference in Ottawa with his Indian counterpart, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on the second day of a three-day visit to Canada.

Canada is the world’s second-largest producer of uranium behind Kazakhstan, exporting more than 1 billion Canadian dollars ($801 million) worth each year.

The deal is also potentially a positive development for the uranium industry, which has been in a slump since a major earthquake and ensuing tsunami caused a nuclear accident in Japan in March 2011, leading many industrialized nations to pull back from nuclear power.