Prime Minister John Key says his shares in a mining company that has uranium interests will be sold today or tomorrow.
Asked at the weekend about the shares, Mr Key said he was unaware the company, Jackson Minerals, had merged last year with Scimitar Resources to form Cauldron Energy, which has numerous uranium exploration projects in Australia and Argentina.
When Mr Key had bought the Jackson shares in 2001 it had just been a gold mining company, and at that time he had been a large shareholder.
Since then he had sold the majority of the shares and what was left was worth a few cents each, he believed.
This morning Mr Key told reporters that the remaining shares would be disposed of either today or tomorrow.
New Zealand has an anti-nuclear policy and Mr Key's Government is shortly to release a proposal to open up parts of the conservation estate to mining.
Mr Key said it would boost the economy and create jobs in under-used land without causing environmental damage.
American conservation group the Sierra Club wrote to Mr Key saying the mining plans were an "affront to the international community" that would lead to less tourists coming to New Zealand.
