Nuclear Power

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Uranium Mining

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About Uranium

World Supply of Uranium

• About 62 percent of the world's production of uranium from mines is from Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia. 
• An increasing proportion of uranium, now 41%, is produced by in situ leaching. 
• After a decade of falling mine production to 1993, output of uranium has generally risen since then and now meets 78% of demand for power generation. 

Australia, Canada and Kazakhstan are now the world's major producers and exporters of uranium. In addition to providing further diversification and strength to their domestic economies, it gives all three countries a voice in the framing of international nuclear policies and safeguards. It also reduces the need for buyers to seek uranium from countries with less effective safeguards. 

Kazakhstan produces the largest share of uranium from mines (33% of world supply from mines), followed by Canada (18%) and Australia (11%). 

Production from mines (tonnes U) 

WNA Market Report data

Mining methods have been changing. In 1990, 55% of world production came from underground mines, but this shrunk dramatically to 1999, with 33% then. From 2000 the new Canadian mines increased it again, and with Olympic Dam it is now one third.  In situ leach (ISL, or ISR) mining has been steadily increasing its share of the total, mainly due to Kazakhstan.  In 2010 production was as follows:

(considering Olympic Dam as by-product rather than in underground category) 

Conventional mines have a mill where the ore is crushed, ground and then leached with sulfuric acid to dissolve the uranium oxides. At the mill of a conventional mine, or the treatment plant of an ISL operation, the uranium then separated by ion exchange before being dried and packed, usually as U3O8. Some mills and ISL operations use carbonate leaching instead of sulfuric acid, depending on the orebody. Where uranium is recovered a s a by-product, eg of copper or phosphate, the treatment process is likely to be more complex.

During the 1990s the uranium production industry was consolidated by takeovers, mergers and closures, but this has diversified in recent years with Kazakhstan's diverse ownership structure. In 2010, ten companies marketed 87% of the world's uranium mine production:

   

The largest-producing uranium mines in 2010 were: 

   

The next 20 uranium mines in 2010 were: 

 

New Mines

Since the recovery of uranium prices since about 2003, there has been a lot of activity in preparing to open new mines in many countries.  The WNA reference scenario projects world uranium demand as about 77,000 tU in 2015, and most of this will need to come directly from mines (in 2010, 22% came from secondary sources).

Source:World Nuclear Association

Known Recoverable Resources* of Uranium 2007 

Reasonably Assured Resources plus Inferred Resources, to US$ 130/kg U, 1/1/07, from OECD NEA & IAEA, Uranium 2007: Resources, Production and Demand ("Red Book").

Sources:
World Nuclear Association

Copyright 2011 Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. All rights reserved.