Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium

Uranium

Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...

 ore from the ground. The worldwide production of uranium in 2009 amounted to 50,572 tonne

Tonne

The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...

s, of which 27% was mined in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 63% of world uranium production. Other important uranium producing countries in excess of 1000 tonnes per year are Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

, Russia, Niger

Niger

Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...

, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

, and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

A prominent use of uranium from mining is as fuel for nuclear power plant

Nuclear power plant

A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...

s. As of 2008, known uranium ore resources that can be mined at about current costs are estimated to be sufficient to produce fuel for about a century, based on current consumption rates.

After mining uranium ores, they are normally processed by grinding the ore materials to a uniform particle size and then treating the ore to extract the uranium by chemical leaching. The milling process commonly yields dry powder-form material consisting of natural uranium, "yellowcake

Yellowcake

Yellowcake is a kind of uranium concentrate powder obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. Yellowcake concentrates are prepared by various extraction and refining methods, depending on the types of ores...

," which is sold on the uranium market as U₃O₈.

History

Uranium minerals were noticed by miners for a long time prior to the discovery of uranium in 1789. The uranium mineral pitchblende, also known as uraninite

Uraninite

Uraninite is a radioactive, uranium-rich mineral and ore with a chemical composition that is largely UO2, but also contains UO3 and oxides of lead, thorium, and rare earth elements...

, was reported from the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains)

Ore Mountains

The Ore Mountains in Central Europe have formed a natural border between Saxony and Bohemia for many centuries. Today, the border between Germany and the Czech Republic runs just north of the main crest of the mountain range...

, Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

, as early as 1565. Other early reports of pitchblende date from 1727 in Joachimsthal and 1763 in Schwarzwald.

In the early 19th century, uranium ore was recovered as a byproduct of mining in Saxony, Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

, and Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

. The first deliberate mining of radioactive ores took place in Jáchymov

Jáchymov

For other places called Joachimsthal, see Joachimsthal Jáchymov . compl: "Sant Joachim's Sthal" is a spa town in north-west Bohemia in the Czech Republic belonging to the Karlovy Vary Region. It is situated at an altitude of 733 m above sea level in the eponymous St...

, also known by its German name Joachimsthal, a silver-mining

Silver mining

Silver mining refers to the resource extraction of the precious metal element silver by mining.-History:Silver has been known since ancient times. It is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, and slag heaps found in Asia Minor and on the islands of the Aegean Sea indicate that silver was being separated...

 city in what is now the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

. Marie Curie

Marie Curie

Marie Skłodowska-Curie was a physicist and chemist famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes—in physics and chemistry...

 used pitchblende ore from Jáchymov to isolate the element radium

Radium

Radium is a chemical element with atomic number 88, represented by the symbol Ra. Radium is an almost pure-white alkaline earth metal, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, becoming black in color. All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226,...

, a decay product

Decay product

In nuclear physics, a decay product is the remaining nuclide left over from radioactive decay. Radioactive decay often involves a sequence of steps...

 of uranium; her death was from aplastic anemia

Aplastic anemia

Aplastic anemia is a condition where bone marrow does not produce sufficient new cells to replenish blood cells. The condition, per its name, involves both aplasia and anemia...

, almost certainly due to exposure to radioactivity. Until World War II uranium mining was done primarily for the radium content. Sources for radium, contained in the uranium ore, were sought for use as luminous paint

Luminous paint

Luminous paint or luminescent paint is paint that exhibits luminescence. In other words, it gives off visible light through fluorescence, phosphorescence, or radioluminescence.-Fluorescent paint:...

 for watch dials and other instruments, as well as for health-related applications, some of which in retrospect might have been harmful. The byproduct uranium was used mostly as a yellow pigment

Pigment

A pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light.Many materials selectively absorb...

.

In the United States, the first radium/uranium ore was discovered in 1871 in gold mines

Gold mining

Gold mining is the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques and processes by which gold may be extracted from the earth.-History:...

 near Central City, Colorado

Central City, Colorado

Central City is a home rule municipality in Clear Creek and Gilpin counties in the U.S. state of Colorado, and the county seat of Gilpin County. The city population was 515 in the 2000 United States Census...

. This district produced about 50 tons of high grade ore between 1871 and 1895. However, most American uranium ore before World War II came from vanadium

Vanadium

Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery gray, ductile and malleable transition metal. The formation of an oxide layer stabilizes the metal against oxidation. The element is found only in chemically combined form in nature...

 deposits on the Colorado Plateau

Colorado Plateau

The Colorado Plateau, also called the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. The province covers an area of 337,000 km2 within western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico,...

 of Utah and Colorado.

In Cornwall, the South Terras Mine near St. Stephen opened for uranium production in 1873, and produced about 175 tons of ore before 1900. Other early uranium mining occurred in Autunois in France's Massif Central

Massif Central

The Massif Central is an elevated region in south-central France, consisting of mountains and plateaux....

, Oberpfalz in Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, and Billingen

Billingen

Billingen is the largest of the thirteen mesas in the Swedish county of Västra Götaland, with a maximum altitude of . The mesa extends in a north-southerly direct with a length of and a width of ....

 in Sweden.

The Shinkolobwe

Shinkolobwe

Shinkolobwe is the name of a town and a mine in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , located near the larger town of Likasi and about 120 miles northwest of Lubumbashi. The former mine was located in the centre of a 400 kilometre long belt of uranified minerals, stretching...

 deposit in Katanga

Katanga Province

Katanga Province is one of the provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Between 1971 and 1997, its official name was Shaba Province. Under the new constitution, the province was to be replaced by four smaller provinces by February 2009; this did not actually take place.Katanga's regional...

, Belgian Congo

Belgian Congo

The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...

 now Shaba Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

 was discovered in 1913, and exploited by the Union Minière du Haut Katanga

Union Minière du Haut Katanga

The Union Minière du Haut Katanga was a Belgian mining company, once operating in Katanga, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

. Other important early deposits include Port Radium, near Great Bear Lake

Great Bear Lake

Great Bear Lake is the largest lake entirely within Canada , the third or fourth largest in North America, and the seventh or eighth largest in the world...

, Canada discovered in 1931, along with Beira Province, Portugal; Tyuya Muyun, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

, and Radium Hill

Radium Hill

Radium Hill is a former minesite in South Australia which operated from 1906 until 1961. It was Australia's first uranium mine, years before the country's next major mines at Rum Jungle in the Northern Territory , and the Mary Kathleen mine in Queensland...

, Australia.

Because of the need for the uranium for bomb research during World War II, the Manhattan Project

Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...

 used a variety of sources for the element. The Manhattan Project initially purchased uranium ore from the Belgian Congo, through the Union Minière du Haut Katanga

Union Minière du Haut Katanga

The Union Minière du Haut Katanga was a Belgian mining company, once operating in Katanga, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

. Later the project contracted with vanadium mining companies in the American Southwest. Purchases were also made from the Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited

Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited

The Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited company was originally organized in 1927 as Eldorado Gold Mines Limited to develop a gold mine in Manitoba. Its president Gilbert LaBine later found radioactive deposits at Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories in 1930, which led to the development of the...

 company in Canada. This company had large stocks of uranium as waste from its radium refining activities.

American uranium ores mined in Colorado were mixed ores of vanadium and uranium, but because of wartime secrecy, the Manhattan Project would publicly admit only to purchasing the vanadium, and did not pay the uranium miners for the uranium content. In a much later lawsuit, many miners were able to reclaim lost profits from the U.S. government. American ores had much lower uranium concentrations than the ore from the Belgian Congo, but they were pursued vigorously to ensure nuclear self-sufficiency.

Similar efforts were undertaken in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, which did not have native stocks of uranium when it started developing its own atomic weapons program.

Intensive exploration for uranium started after the end of World War II as a result of the military and civilian demand for uranium. There were three separate periods of uranium exploration or "booms." These were from 1956 to 1960, 1967 to 1971, and from 1976 to 1982.

In the 20th century the United States was the world's largest uranium producer. Grants Uranium District in northwestern New Mexico was the largest United States uranium producer. The Gas Hills Uranium District, was the second largest uranium producer. The famous Lucky Mc Mine is located in the Gas Hills near Riverton, Wyoming. Canada has since surpassed the United States as the cumulative largest producer in the world.

Types of uranium deposits

Many different types of uranium deposits have been discovered and mined.
There are mainly three types of uranium deposits including unconformity-type deposits, namely paleoplacer deposits and sandstone-type also known as roll front type deposits.

Uranium deposits in sedimentary rock

Uranium deposits in sedimentary rocks include those in sandstone (in Canada and the western US

Western United States

.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...

),
Precambrian

Precambrian

The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...

 unconformities

Unconformity

An unconformity is a buried erosion surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous. In general, the older layer was exposed to erosion for an interval of time before deposition of the younger, but the term is used to describe...

 (in Canada),
phosphate

Phosphate

A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt of phosphoric acid. In organic chemistry, a phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric acid. Organic phosphates are important in biochemistry and biogeochemistry or ecology. Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in...

,
Precambrian

Precambrian

The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...

 quartz

Quartz

Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...

-pebble conglomerate

Conglomerate (geology)

A conglomerate is a rock consisting of individual clasts within a finer-grained matrix that have become cemented together. Conglomerates are sedimentary rocks consisting of rounded fragments and are thus differentiated from breccias, which consist of angular clasts...

, collapse breccia pipes (see Arizona Breccia Pipe Uranium Mineralization

Arizona breccia pipe uranium mineralization

During the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Mohave and Coconino County, Arizona, immediately north and south of the Grand Canyon and west of the Navajo Indian Reservation were explored for Arizona breccia pipe uranium mineralization...

),
and calcrete.

Sandstone uranium deposits are generally of two types. Roll-front type deposits occur at the boundary between the up dip and oxidized part of a sandstone body and the deeper down dip reduced part of a sandstone body. Peneconcordant sandstone uranium deposits, also called Colorado Plateau

Colorado Plateau

The Colorado Plateau, also called the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. The province covers an area of 337,000 km2 within western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico,...

-type deposits, most often occur within generally oxidized sandstone bodies, often in localized reduced zones, such as in association with carbonized wood in the sandstone.

Precambrian

Precambrian

The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...

 quartz

Quartz

Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...

-pebble conglomerate

Conglomerate (geology)

A conglomerate is a rock consisting of individual clasts within a finer-grained matrix that have become cemented together. Conglomerates are sedimentary rocks consisting of rounded fragments and are thus differentiated from breccias, which consist of angular clasts...

-type uranium deposits occur only in rocks older than two billion years old. The conglomerates also contain pyrite. These deposits have been mined in the Blind River

Blind River, Ontario

Population trend:* Population in 2006: 3780* Population in 2001: 3969* Population in 1996: 3152 * Population in 1991: 3355-Economy:Its main businesses are tourism, fishing, logging, and uranium refining....

-Elliot Lake district of Ontario, Canada, and from the gold-bearing Witwatersrand

Witwatersrand

The Witwatersrand is a low, sedimentary range of hills, at an elevation of 1700–1800 metres above sea-level, which runs in an east-west direction through Gauteng in South Africa. The word in Afrikaans means "the ridge of white waters". Geologically it is complex, but the principal formations...

 conglomerates of South Africa.

Igneous or hydrothermal uranium deposits

Hydrothermal uranium deposits encompass the vein-type uranium ores. Igneous deposits include nepheline syenite

Nepheline syenite

Nephelene syenite is a holocrystalline plutonic rock that consists largely of nepheline and alkali feldspar. The rocks are mostly pale colored, grey or pink, and in general appearance they are not unlike granites, but dark green varieties are also known...

 intrusives at Ilimaussaq

Ilimaussaq intrusive complex

The Ilimaussaq intrusive complex is a large alkalic layered intrusion located on the southwest coast of Greenland. It is Mesoproterozoic in age. It is the type locality of agpaitic nepheline syenite and hosts a variety of unusual rock types....

, Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

; the disseminated uranium deposit at Rossing

Rossing

The Rössing Uranium Mine in Namibia is one of the largest open pit uranium mines in the world and is located in the Namib Desert near the town of Arandis, which is 70 kilometres from the coastal town of Swakopmund. Namibia’s only deepwater harbour, Walvis Bay, is 30 kilometres south of Swakopmund...

, Namibia; and uranium-bearing pegmatite

Pegmatite

A pegmatite is a very crystalline, intrusive igneous rock composed of interlocking crystals usually larger than 2.5 cm in size; such rocks are referred to as pegmatitic....

s. Disseminated deposits are also found in the states of Washington and Alaska in the US.

Exploration

Uranium prospecting is similar to other forms of mineral exploration with the exception of some specialized instruments for detecting the presence of radioactive isotopes.

The Geiger counter

Geiger counter

A Geiger counter, also called a Geiger–Müller counter, is a type of particle detector that measures ionizing radiation. They detect the emission of nuclear radiation: alpha particles, beta particles or gamma rays. A Geiger counter detects radiation by ionization produced in a low-pressure gas in a...

 was the original radiation detector, recording the total count rate from all energy levels of radiation. Ionization chambers and Geiger counters were first adapted for field use in the 1930s. The first transportable Geiger–Müller counter (weighing 25 kg) was constructed at the University of British Columbia

University of British Columbia

The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...

 in 1932. H.V. Ellsworth of the GSC built a lighter weight, more practical unit in 1934. Subsequent models were the principal instruments used for uranium prospecting for many years, until geiger counters were replaced by scintillation counter

Scintillation counter

A scintillation counter measures ionizing radiation. The sensor, called a scintillator, consists of a transparent crystal, usually phosphor, plastic , or organic liquid that fluoresces when struck by ionizing radiation. A sensitive photomultiplier tube measures the light from the crystal...

s.

The use of airborne detectors to prospect for radioactive minerals was first proposed by G.C. Ridland, a geophysicist working at Port Radium in 1943. In 1947, the earliest recorded trial of airborne radiation detector

Radiometer

A radiometer is a device for measuring the radiant flux of electromagnetic radiation. Generally, the term radiometer denotes an infrared radiation detector, yet it also includes detectors operating on any electromagnetic wavelength....

s (ionization chambers and Geiger counters) was conducted by Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited

Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited

The Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited company was originally organized in 1927 as Eldorado Gold Mines Limited to develop a gold mine in Manitoba. Its president Gilbert LaBine later found radioactive deposits at Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories in 1930, which led to the development of the...

. (a Canadian Crown Corporation since sold to become Cameco Corporation). The first patent for a portable gamma-ray spectrometer

Spectrometer

A spectrometer is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials. The variable measured is most often the light's intensity but could also, for instance, be the polarization...

 was filed by Professors Pringle, Roulston & Brownell of the University of Manitoba

University of Manitoba

The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...

 in 1949, the same year as they tested the first portable scintillation counter on the ground and in the air in northern Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

.

Airborne gamma-ray spectrometry is now the accepted leading technique for uranium prospecting with worldwide applications for geological mapping, mineral exploration & environmental monitoring.

A deposit of uranium, discovered by geophysical techniques, is evaluated and sampled to determine the amounts of uranium materials that are extractable at specified costs from the deposit. Uranium reserves are the amounts of ore that are estimated to be recoverable at stated costs.

Mining techniques

As with other types of hard rock mining there are several methods of extraction. The main methods of mining are box cut

Box cut

A box cut is a small open cut created to provide a secure and safe portal as access to a decline to an underground mine. Generally the box cut is sunk until sufficiently unweathered rock is found to permit the development of the decline....

mining, open pit mining and In-situ leaching (ISL).

Open pit

In open pit mining, overburden

Overburden

Overburden is the material that lies above an area of economic or scientific interest in mining and archaeology; most commonly the rock, soil, and ecosystem that lies above a coal seam or ore body. It is also known as 'waste' or 'spoil'...

 is removed by drilling and blasting to expose the ore body, which is then mined by blasting and excavation using loaders and dump trucks. Workers spend much time in enclosed cabins thus limiting exposure to radiation. Water is extensively used to suppress airborne dust levels.

Underground uranium mining

If the uranium is too far below the surface for open pit mining, an underground mine might be used with tunnels and shafts dug to access and remove uranium ore. There is less waste material removed from underground mines than open pit mines, however this type of mining exposes underground workers to the highest levels of radon gas.

Underground uranium mining is in principle no different to any other hard rock mining and other ores are often mined in association (e.g., copper, gold, silver). Once the ore body has been identified a shaft is sunk in the vicinity of the ore veins, and crosscuts are driven horizontally to the veins at various levels, usually every 100 to 150 metres. Similar tunnels, known as drifts, are driven along the ore veins from the crosscut. To extract the ore, the next step is to drive tunnels, known as raises when driven upwards and winzes when driven downwards through the deposit from level to level. Raises are subsequently used to develop the stopes where the ore is mined from the veins.

The stope, which is the workshop of the mine, is the excavation from which the ore is extracted. Two methods of stope mining are commonly used. In the "cut and fill" or open stoping method, the space remaining following removal of ore after blasting is filled with waste rock and cement. In the "shrinkage" method, only sufficient broken ore is removed via the chutes below to allow miners working from the top of the pile to drill and blast the next layer to be broken off, eventually leaving a large hole. Another method, known as room and pillar, is used for thinner, flatter ore bodies. In this method the ore body is first divided into blocks by intersecting drives, removing ore while so doing, and then systematically removing the blocks, leaving enough ore for roof support.

Heap leaching

Heap leaching

Heap leaching

Heap leaching is an industrial mining process to extract precious metals, copper, uranium, and other compounds from ore.The process has ancient origins; one of the classical methods for the manufacture of copperas was to heap up iron pyrite and collect the leachate from the heap, which was then...

 is a process by which chemicals (usually sulfuric acid

Sulfuric acid

Sulfuric acid is a strong mineral acid with the molecular formula . Its historical name is oil of vitriol. Pure sulfuric acid is a highly corrosive, colorless, viscous liquid. The salts of sulfuric acid are called sulfates...

) are used to extract the economic element from the ore. Heap leaching is generally only economically feasible only for oxide ore deposits. Oxidation of sulfide deposits occur during the geological process called weatherization. Therefore oxide ore deposits are typically found close to the surface. If there are no other economic elements within the ore a mine might choose to extract the Uranium using a leaching agent, usually a low molar sulfuric acid.

If the economic and geological conditions are right, the mining company will level large areas of land with a small gradient, layering it with thick plastic (usually HDPE or LLDPE), sometimes with clay, silt or sand beneath the plastic liner. The extracted ore will typically be run through a crusher and placed in heaps atop the plastic. The leaching agent will then be sprayed on the ore for 30–90 days. As the leaching agent filters through the heap the Uranium will break its bonds with the oxide rock and enter the solution. The solution will then filter along the gradient into collecting pools which will then be pumped to on-site plants for further processing. Only some of the Uranium (commonly about 70%) is actually extracted.

The Uranium concentrations within the solution are very important for the efficient separation of pure uranium from the acid. As different heaps will yield different concentrations the solution is pumped to a mixing plant that is carefully monitored. The properly balanced solution is then pumped into a processing plant where the Uranium is separated from the sulfuric acid.

Heap leach is significantly cheaper than traditional milling processes. The low costs allow for lower grade ore to be economically feasible (given that it is the right type of ore body). Environmental law requires that the surrounding ground water is continually monitored for possible contamination. The mine will also have to have continued monitoring even after the shutdown of the mine. In the past mining companies would sometimes go bankrupt, leaving the responsibility of mine reclamation to the public. Recent additions to the mining law require that companies set aside the money for reclamation before the beginning of the project. The money will be held by the public to insure adherence to environmental standards if the company were to ever go bankrupt.

Another very similar mining technique is called in situ, or in place mining where the ore doesn't even need extracting.

In-situ leaching

In-situ leaching (ISL), also known as solution mining, or in-situ recovery (ISR) in North America, involves leaving the ore where it is in the ground, and recovering the minerals from it by dissolving them and pumping the pregnant solution to the surface where the minerals can be recovered. Consequently there is little surface disturbance and no tailings or waste rock generated. However, the orebody needs to be permeable to the liquids used, and located so that they do not contaminate ground water away from the orebody.

Uranium ISL uses the native groundwater in the orebody which is fortified with a complexing agent and in most cases an oxidant. It is then pumped through the underground orebody to recover the minerals in it by leaching. Once the pregnant solution is returned to the surface, the uranium is recovered in much the same way as in any other uranium plant (mill).

In Australian ISL mines (Beverley

Beverley Uranium Mine

The Beverley Mine is Australia's third uranium mine and Australia's first operating in-situ recovery mine. It is located 35 km from Lake Frome at the northern end of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and opened in 2001...

 and the soon to be opened Honeymoon Mine

Honeymoon Uranium Mine

The Honeymoon Mine will be Australia's fourth uranium mine and Australia's second operating in-situ recovery mine. The mine is owned by Uranium One. The uranium deposit belongs to the palaeochannel type.-See also:* Uranium mining in Australia...

) the oxidant used is hydrogen peroxide and the complexing agent sulfuric acid. Kazakh ISL mines generally do not employ an oxidant but use much higher acid concentrations in the circulating solutions. ISL mines in the USA use an alkali leach due to the presence of significant quantities of acid-consuming minerals such as gypsum and limestone in the host aquifers. Any more than a few percent carbonate minerals means that alkali leach must be used in preference to the more efficient acid leach

The Australian government has published a best practice guide for in situ leach mining of uranium, which is being revised to take account of international differences.

Recovery from seawater

The uranium concentration of sea water is low, approximately 3.3 mg per cubic meter of seawater (3.3 ppb). But the quantity of this resource is gigantic and some scientists believe this resource is practically limitless with respect to world-wide demand. That is to say, if even a portion of the uranium in seawater could be used the entire world's nuclear power generation fuel could be provided over a long time period. Some anti-nuclear proponents claim this statistic is exaggerated. Although research and development for recovery of this low-concentration element by inorganic adsorbents such as titanium oxide

Titanium oxide

Titanium oxide may refer to:* Titanium dioxide , TiO2* Titanium oxide , TiO, a non-stoichiometric oxide* Titanium oxide , Ti2O3* Ti3O* Ti2O* δ-TiOx...

 compounds, has occurred since the 1960s in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan, this research was halted due to low recovery efficiency.

At the Takasaki Radiation Chemistry Research Establishment of the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI Takasaki Research Establishment), research and development has continued culminating in the production of adsorbent by irradiation of polymer fiber. Adsorbents have been synthesized that have a functional group (amidoxime group) that selectively adsorbs heavy metals, and the performance of such adsorbents has been improved. Uranium adsorption capacity of the polymer fiber adsorbent is high, approximately tenfold greater in comparison to the conventional titanium oxide adsorbent.

One method of extracting uranium from seawater is using a uranium-specific nonwoven fabric as an absorbent. The total amount of uranium recovered from three collection boxes containing 350 kg of fabric was >1 kg of yellowcake

Yellowcake

Yellowcake is a kind of uranium concentrate powder obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. Yellowcake concentrates are prepared by various extraction and refining methods, depending on the types of ores...

 after 240 days of submersion in the ocean. According to the OECD, uranium may be extracted from seawater using this method for about $300/kg-U. The experiment by Seko et al. was repeated by Tamada et al. in 2006. They found that the cost varied from ¥15,000 to ¥88,000 (Yen) depending on assumptions and "The lowest cost attainable now is ¥25,000 with 4g-U/kg-adsorbent used in the sea area of Okinawa, with 18 repetitionuses [sic]." With the May, 2008 exchange rate, this was about $240/kg-U.

Uranium prices

Since 1981 uranium prices and quantities in the US are reported by the Department of Energy

United States Department of Energy

The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...

.
The import price dropped from 32.90 US$/lb-U₃O₈ in 1981 down to 12.55 in 1990 and to below 10 US$/lb-U₃O₈ in the year 2000. Prices paid for uranium during the 1970s were higher, 43 US$/lb-U₃O₈ is reported as the selling price for Australian uranium in 1978 by the Nuclear Information Centre.

Uranium prices reached an all-time low in 2001, costing US$7/lb, but has since rebounded strongly. In April 2007 the price of Uranium on the spot market rose to US$113.00/lb, This is very close to the all time high (adjusted for inflation) in 1977. a high point of the uranium bubble of 2007

Uranium bubble of 2007

The uranium bubble of 2007 was a period of nearly exponential growth in the price of natural uranium, starting in 2005 and peaking at roughly 300$/kg in mid-2007. This coincided with significant rises of stock price of uranium mining and exploration companies...

. The higher price has spurred expansion of current mines, construction of new mines and reopening of old mines as well as new prospecting.

Politics of uranium mining

In the beginning of the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

, to ensure adequate supplies of uranium for national defense, the United States Congress passed the U.S. Atomic Energy Act of 1946

Atomic Energy Act of 1946

The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 determined how the United States federal government would control and manage the nuclear technology it had jointly developed with its wartime allies...

, creating the Atomic Energy Commission

United States Atomic Energy Commission

The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...

 (AEC) which had the power to withdraw prospective uranium mining land from public purchase, and also to manipulate the price of uranium to meet national needs. By setting a high price for uranium ore, the AEC created a uranium "boom" in the early 1950s, which attracted many prospectors to the Four Corners region of the country. Moab, Utah became known as the Uranium-capital of the world, when geologist Charles Steen

Charles Steen

Charles A. Steen , was a geologist who made and lost a fortune after discovering a rich uranium deposit in Utah during the Uranium boom of the early 1950s.-Early years:Steen was born in Caddo, Texas and attended high school in Houston...

 discovered such an ore in 1952, even though American ore sources were considerably less potent than those in the Belgian Congo or South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.

In the 1950s methods for extracting diluted uranium and thorium

Thorium

Thorium is a natural radioactive chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. It was discovered in 1828 and named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder....

, found in abundance in granite or seawater, were pursued. Scientists speculated that, used in a breeder reactor

Breeder reactor

A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor capable of generating more fissile material than it consumes because its neutron economy is high enough to breed fissile from fertile material like uranium-238 or thorium-232. Breeders were at first considered superior because of their superior fuel economy...

, these materials would potentially provide limitless source of energy.

American military requirements declined in the 1960s, and the government completed its uranium procurement program by the end of 1970. Simultaneously, a new market emerged: commercial nuclear power plants. However, in the U.S. this market virtually collapsed by the end of the 1970s as a result of industrial strains caused by the energy crisis

Energy crisis

An energy crisis is any great bottleneck in the supply of energy resources to an economy. In popular literature though, it often refers to one of the energy sources used at a certain time and place, particularly those that supply national electricity grids or serve as fuel for vehicles...

, popular opposition, and finally the Three Mile Island nuclear accident

Three Mile Island accident

The Three Mile Island accident was a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979....

 in 1979, all of which led to a de facto moratorium on the development of new nuclear reactor power stations.

In Europe a mixed situation exists. Considerable nuclear power capacities have been developed, notably in Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. In many countries development of nuclear power

Nuclear power

Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...

 has been stopped and phased out by legal actions. In Italy the use of nuclear power was barred by a referendum

Referendum

A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...

 in 1987, however this is now under revision. Ireland also has no plans to change its non-nuclear stance and pursue nuclear power in the future.

Opposition to uranium mining has been considerable in Australia, where notable anti-uranium activists have included Kevin Buzzacott

Kevin Buzzacott

Kevin Buzzacott , often referred to as Uncle Kev as an Aboriginal elder, is an Indigenous Australian from the Arabunna nation in northern South Australia...

, Jacqui Katona

Jacqui Katona

Jacqui Katona is a western-educated Aboriginal woman who led the campaign to stop the Jabiluka uranium mine in the Northern Territory. In 1998 the Mirrar Aboriginal people, together with environmental groups, used peaceful on-site civil disobedience to create one of the largest blockades in...

, Yvonne Margarula

Yvonne Margarula

Yvonne Margarula won the 1998 Friends of the Earth International Environment Award and the 1998 Nuclear-Free Future Award. She also won the 1999 U.S...

, and Jillian Marsh

Jillian Marsh

Jillian Marsh was raised in the coal-mining town of Leigh Creek, in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges, and she has had a long interest in mining issues and indigenous communities. In 1998 Marsh received the prestigious Jill Hudson Environmental Award for her work in educating people living near the...

. Other notable anti-uranium activists include Manuel Pino

Manuel Pino

Manuel Pino is a professor at Scottsdale Community College in Arizona, who comes from a village of the Tewa people west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Opposition to uranium mining has played a central role in Pino's life. The theme for his sociology dissertation was The Destructive Impact of Uranium...

 (USA), JoAnn Tall

JoAnn Tall

JoAnn Tall is an environmental activist of the Oglala Lakota tribe who has worked to ensure the people have a chance to approve major projects for energy development...

 (USA), and Sun Xiaodi

Sun Xiaodi

Sun Xiaodi has spent more than a decade petitioning the central Chinese authorities over radioactive contamination from the No. 792 Uranium Mine in the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu Province. In 2006, he received the prestigious Nuclear-Free Future Award.-External links:*...

 (China).

Lung cancer deaths

Uranium ore emits radon

Radon

Radon is a chemical element with symbol Rn and atomic number 86. It is a radioactive, colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas, occurring naturally as the decay product of uranium or thorium. Its most stable isotope, 222Rn, has a half-life of 3.8 days...

 gas. The health effects of high exposure to radon is a particular problem in the mining of uranium; significant excess lung cancer deaths have been identified in epidemiological

Epidemiology

Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...

 studies of uranium miners employed in the 1940s and 1950s.
The first major studies with radon and health occurred in the context of uranium mining, first in the Joachimsthal region of Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

 and then in the Southwestern United States

Southwestern United States

The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...

 during the early Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

. Because radon is a product of the radioactive decay

Radioactive decay

Radioactive decay is the process by which an atomic nucleus of an unstable atom loses energy by emitting ionizing particles . The emission is spontaneous, in that the atom decays without any physical interaction with another particle from outside the atom...

 of uranium, underground uranium mines may have high concentrations of radon. Many uranium miners in the Four Corners region contracted lung cancer

Lung cancer

Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...

 and other pathologies as a result of high levels of exposure to radon in the mid-1950s. The increased incidence of lung cancer was particularly pronounced among Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 and Mormon

Mormon

The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

 miners, because those groups normally have low rates of lung cancer.
Safety standards requiring expensive ventilation were not widely implemented or policed during this period.

In studies of uranium miners, workers exposed to radon levels of 50 to 150 picocuries of radon per liter of air (2000–6000 Bq/m³) for about 10 years have shown an increased frequency of lung cancer. Statistically significant excesses in lung cancer deaths were present after cumulative exposures of less than 50 WLM. There is, however, unexplained heterogeneity in these results (whose confidence interval do not always overlap). The size of the radon-related increase in lung cancer risk varied by more than an order of magnitude between the different studies.

Since that time, ventilation and other measures have been used to reduce radon levels in most affected mines that continue to operate. In recent years, the average annual exposure of uranium miners has fallen to levels similar to the concentrations inhaled in some homes. This has reduced the risk of occupationally induced cancer from radon, although it still remains an issue both for those who are currently employed in affected mines and for those who have been employed in the past.
The power to detect any excess risks in miners nowadays is likely to be small, exposures being much smaller than in the early years of mining.

In January 2008 Areva

Areva

AREVA is a French public multinational industrial conglomerate headquartered in the Tour Areva in Courbevoie, Paris. AREVA is mainly known for nuclear power; it also has interests in other energy projects. It was created on 3 September 2001, by the merger of Framatome , Cogema and...

 won the Public Eye Awards

Public Eye Awards

The Public Eye, held every year since 2000, is a counter-event to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The Public Eye celebrated its ten-year anniversary on 28 January 2009....

: negative awards for irresponsible, profit-driven environmental or social behaviour. The French state-owned company mines uranium in northern Niger where, according to the Public Eye Awards, mine workers are not informed about health risks, and analysis shows radioactive contamination of air, water and soil. The local organization that represents the mine workers, spoke of "suspicious deaths among the workers, caused by radioactive dust and contaminated groundwater."

United States

Despite efforts made in cleaning up uranium sites, significant problems stemming from the legacy of uranium development still exist today on the Navajo Nation and in the states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Hundreds of abandoned mines have not been cleaned up and present environmental and health risks in many communities. At the request of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in October 2007, and in consultation with the Navajo Nation, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Indian Health Service (IHS), developed a coordinated Five-Year Plan to address uranium contamination. http://www.epa.gov/region/superfund/navajo-nation/index.html Similar interagency coordination efforts are beginning in the State of New Mexico as well.

Australia

Production in Australia rose significantly to 10,115 tU₃O₈ (22.3 million pounds) in 2007 from 19.7 million pounds in 2006, securing its position as the second largest uranium producing country, most of the production gain coming from increased operational performance and an increase in the grade of the ore mined.

Australia has the world's largest uranium reserves, 24% of the planet's known reserves. The majority of these reserves are located in South Australia with other important deposits in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

The Olympic Dam operation run by BHP Billiton

BHP Billiton

BHP Billiton is a global mining, oil and gas company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with a major management office in London, United Kingdom...

 in South Australia is combined with mining of copper, gold, and silver, and has reserves of global significance. There are currently three operating uranium mines in Australia, and several more have been proposed. The expansion of Australia's uranium mines is supported by the Federal Australian Labor Party (ALP) Government headed by Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The ALP abandoned its long-standing and controversial "no new uranium mines" policy in April 2007. One of the more controversial proposals was Jabiluka

Jabiluka

Jabiluka is a uranium deposit and mine development in the Northern Territory of Australia that was to have been built on land belonging to the Mirarr Aboriginal people...

, to be built surrounded by the World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park

Kakadu National Park

Kakadu National Park is in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km southeast of Darwin.Kakadu National Park is located within the Alligator Rivers Region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It covers an area of , extending nearly 200 kilometres from north to south and over 100 kilometres...

. The existing Ranger Uranium Mine

Ranger Uranium Mine

The Ranger uranium mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 230 km east of Darwin. The orebody was discovered in 1969, and the mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of uranium oxide in 1981...

 is also surrounded by the National Park, as the mine area was not included in the original listing of the Park.

Uranium mining and export and related nuclear issues have often been the subject of public debate, and the anti-nuclear movement in Australia

Anti-nuclear movement in Australia

Nuclear testing, uranium mining and export, and nuclear energy have often been the subject of public debate in Australia, and the anti-nuclear movement in Australia has a long history...

 has a long history.

Canada

For many years Canada was the largest exporter of uranium ore, however in 2009 the top spot was taken over by Kazakhstan. The largest Canadian mines are located in the Athabasca Basin

Athabasca Basin

This article is about the uranium mining region near Lake Athabasca. Not to be confused with the drainage basin of the Athabasca River.The Athabasca Basin is a region of Northern Saskatchewan and Alberta Canada that is best known as the world's leading source of high grade uranium...

 of northern Saskatchewan.

Canada's first uranium discovery was in the Alona Bay area, south of Lake Superior Provincial Park

Lake Superior Provincial Park

Lake Superior Provincial Park is one of the largest provincial parks in Ontario, covering about along the northeastern shores of Lake Superior between Wawa and Sault Ste. Marie in Algoma District, Northeastern Ontario, Canada...

 in Ontario, by Dr. John Le Conte in 1847. The Canadian uranium industry, however, really began with the 1932 discovery of pitchblende at Port Radium, Northwest Territories

Port Radium, Northwest Territories

Port Radium is a mining area on the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada. It included the settlement of Cameron Bay and the Eldorado Mine and Echo Bay Mine. The name Port Radium did not come into use until 1936 and at the time it was in reference to the region as a whole...

. The deposit was mined from 1933 to 1940, for radium, silver, copper, and cobalt

Cobalt

Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. It is found naturally only in chemically combined form. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal....

. The mine shut down in 1940, but was reopened in 1942 by Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited to supply uranium to the Manhattan Project

Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...

. The Canadian government expropriated the Port Radium mine and banned private claimstaking and mining of radioactive minerals.

In 1947 the government lifted the ban on private uranium mining, and the industry boomed through the 1950s, spurred by high prices due to the nuclear weapons programs. Production peaked in 1959, when twenty-three mines in five different districts made uranium Canada's number-one export. That same year, however, the United Kingdom and the United States announced their intention to halt uranium purchases in 1963. By 1963, seven mines were left operating, a number that shrank to only three in 1972.

A price rise caused uranium to boom again in 1975 and 2005.

Ontario

In 1948, prospector Robert Campbell discovered pitchblende at Theano Point, in the area of Alona Bay, Ontario, and staked 30 claims. By November 1948 a rush had begun, and in the next three years, 5,000 claims would be staked in the area. A shaft and headframe were constructed, but abandoned before operations could begin; the mine proved unprofitable after uranium discoveries at Elliot Lake, Ontario.

The uranium-bearing pegmatite

Pegmatite

A pegmatite is a very crystalline, intrusive igneous rock composed of interlocking crystals usually larger than 2.5 cm in size; such rocks are referred to as pegmatitic....

 of Bancroft, Ontario

Bancroft, Ontario

Bancroft is a town located on the York River in Hastings County in the Canadian province of Ontario.- History :In 1853 the first pioneer family settled in the area, and over the next 15 years the settlement grew quickly, as another 88 families followed...

 began mining in 1952.

Uranium was discovered at Blind River

Blind River, Ontario

Population trend:* Population in 2006: 3780* Population in 2001: 3969* Population in 1996: 3152 * Population in 1991: 3355-Economy:Its main businesses are tourism, fishing, logging, and uranium refining....

-Elliot Lake area in 1949, and production began in 1955. The deposits are in Precambrian quartz-pebble conglomerate

Conglomerate (geology)

A conglomerate is a rock consisting of individual clasts within a finer-grained matrix that have become cemented together. Conglomerates are sedimentary rocks consisting of rounded fragments and are thus differentiated from breccias, which consist of angular clasts...

s, similar to uranium deposits in Brazil and South Africa.

Saskatchewan

Pitchblende veins were discovered near Beaverlodge Lake

Beaverlodge Lake

Beaverlodge Lake is a remote lake in northern Saskatchewan, Canada, located east of Uranium City, Saskatchewan. Road access is provided by Saskatchewan Highway 962....

, Saskatchewan in 1935, and uranium mining started in 1953.

Today the Athabasca Basin

Athabasca Basin

This article is about the uranium mining region near Lake Athabasca. Not to be confused with the drainage basin of the Athabasca River.The Athabasca Basin is a region of Northern Saskatchewan and Alberta Canada that is best known as the world's leading source of high grade uranium...

 in northern Saskatchewan hosts the largest high-grade uranium mines and deposits. Cameco, the world's largest low-cost uranium producer, which accounts for 18% of the world's uranium production, operates three mines and one dedicated mill in the region. Among the major mines are Cameco's flagship McArthur River mine, the developing Cigar Lake mine

Cigar Lake Mine

The Cigar Lake Mine is the largest undeveloped high grade uranium deposit in the world, located in the uranium rich Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan, Canada....

, the Rabbit Lake mine

Rabbit Lake mine

Rabbit Lake is the second largest uranium milling facility in the western world, and is the longest operating uranium production facility in Saskatchewan. The facility is located approximately 800 km north of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, on the northeast edge of the uranium rich Athabasca Basin....

 and mill complex, and the world's largest uranium mill at Key Lake

Key Lake

-See also:* Unconformity uranium deposits* Uranium mining* List of uranium mines...

. French-owned uranium syndicate Areva

Areva

AREVA is a French public multinational industrial conglomerate headquartered in the Tour Areva in Courbevoie, Paris. AREVA is mainly known for nuclear power; it also has interests in other energy projects. It was created on 3 September 2001, by the merger of Framatome , Cogema and...

 also operates the McClean Lake mill. Most of these mines are joint ventures between Cameco, Areva, and various other joint venture shareholders. Future mines currently in early development stages include Areva's Midwest Project (near McClean Lake), and Cameco's Millennium Project (near Key Lake). As of 2007, with uranium spot market prices well over the $100 USD/lb mark, Saskatchewan has become a hotbed of uranium exploration, with many junior exploration companies rushing to explore the highly valuable Athabasca basin.

United States

Most uranium ore in the United States comes from deposits in sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

, which tend to be of lower grade than those of Australia and Canada. Because of the lower grade, many uranium deposits in the United States became uneconomic when the price of uranium declined sharply in the 1980s.

Regular production of uranium-bearing ore in the United States began in 1898 with the mining of carnotite

Carnotite

Carnotite is a potassium uranium vanadate radioactive mineral with chemical formula: K222·3H2O. The water content can vary and small amounts of calcium, barium, magnesium, iron, and sodium are often present.-Occurrence:...

-bearing sandstones of the Colorado Plateau

Colorado Plateau

The Colorado Plateau, also called the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. The province covers an area of 337,000 km2 within western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico,...

 in Colorado and Utah, for their vanadium content. The discovery of radium by Marie Curie, also in 1898, soon made the ore also valuable for radium. Uranium was a byproduct. By 1913, the Colorado Plateau uranium-vanadium province was supplying about half of the world supply of radium. Production declined sharply after 1923, when low-cost competition from radium from the Belgian Congo

Belgian Congo

The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...

 and vanadium from Peru made the Colorado Plateau ores uneconomic.

Mining revived in the 1930s with higher prices for vanadium. American uranium ores were in very high demand by the Manhattan Project during World War II, although the mining companies did not know that the by-product uranium was suddenly valuable. The late 1940s and early 1950s saw a boom in uranium mining in the western US, spurred by the fortunes made by prospectors such as Charlie Steen.

Uranium mining declined with the last open pit mine (Shirley Basin, Wyoming) shutting down in 1992. United States production occurred in the following states (in descending order): New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Washington, and South Dakota. The collapse of uranium prices caused all conventional mining to cease by 1992. In-situ leach

In-situ leach

In-situ leaching , also called in-situ recovery or solution mining, is a mining process used to recover minerals such as copper and uranium through boreholes drilled into a deposit, in situ....

 mining has continued primarily in Wyoming and adjacent Nebraska as well has recently restarted in Texas. Rising uranium prices since 2003 have increased interest in uranium mining in the United States.

Arizona

On Wednesday 25 June 2008 the House Natural Resources Committee voted overwhelmingly to enact emergency protections from uranium mining for 1000000 acres (4,046.9 km²) of public lands around Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...

 National Park. This will mean the Secretary of the Interior has an obligation to protect public lands near the Grand Canyon from uranium extraction for three years. The Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club

Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...

, and the Grand Canyon Trust recently won a court order against the Kaibab National Forest

Kaibab National Forest

At 1.6 million acres the Kaibab National Forest borders both the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon, in north-central Arizona. It is divided into three major sections: the North Kaibab Ranger District and the South Kaibab and are managed by USDA Forest Service...

 stopping uranium drilling near the national park until a thorough environmental analysis is conducted.

The Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act has been proposed. This bill would permanently ban uranium mining in the area.
The impacts of uranium development have raised concerns of scientists and government officials alike. Due to increasing demand, uranium projects have been on the increase, raising concerns about water, public health, and fragile desert ecosystems.

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

 produced some 7847 tU₃O₈ (17.3 million pounds) in 2007, much more than in 2006. Kazatomprom

Kazatomprom

Kazatomprom is a state-owned nuclear holding company in Kazakhstan, which operates in the field of Uranium and nuclear fuel cycle services, production of Beryllium, Tantalum and Niobium, and power production...

's four 100%-owned ISR mining groups (LLP Kazatomprom) combined produced half of the total output.

Russia

The World Nuclear Association

World Nuclear Association

The World Nuclear Association , formerly the Uranium Institute, is an international organization that promotes nuclear power and supports the many companies that comprise the global nuclear industry...

states that Russia has known uranium deposits

Uranium reserves

Uranium reserves are reserves of recoverable uranium, regardless of isotope, based on a set market price. The list given here is based on Uranium 2009: Resources, Production and Demand, a joint report by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency published in 2010....

 of 500,000 tonnes and plans to mine 11,000 to 12,000 tonnes per year from deposits in the South Urals, Western Siberia, and Siberia east of Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal is the world's oldest at 30 million years old and deepest lake with an average depth of 744.4 metres.Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, it is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the...

, by 2010.

The Russian nuclear industry has been undergoing an overall restructuring process during 2007. The production was high as almost 4 000 tU₃O₈ (8.8 million pounds) from three operating mines in 2007. Atomredmetzoloto reported that the Priargunsky mine yielded 7.8 million pounds in 2007, a slight decline from the 8.2 million pounds reported by TVEL

TVEL

TVEL is a Russian nuclear fuel cycle company headquartered in Moscow. It belongs to the Atomenergoprom holding company. Chairman of the board of directors is Alexander Lokshin. The acting President is Yuri Olenin.-Activities:...

 in 2006. At the Dalur (Dolmatovskoye) and Khiagda ISR mines, production of 910 000 pounds and 68 000 pounds, respectively, was reached in 2007. Both ISR projects are expected to increase production steadily through 2015.

Ukraine

Ukraine's VostGOK produced almost 1000 tU₃O₈ (2.2 million pounds) from the Zhovti Vody

Zhovti Vody

Zhovti Vody is a city in south-central Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk Oblast . The city is designated as a separate raion within the oblast, and is located on the Yellow River approximately west of the oblast's administrative center, Dnipropetrovsk.Center for the extraction and processing of uranium...

 mill in 2007, which was similar to the 2.1 million pounds produced in 2006.

Uzbekistan

In Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

, the Navoi Mining & Metallurgy Combinat

Navoi Mining & Metallurgy Combinat

NMMC – one of the largest Uzbek companies involved in the mining industry being among the top ten largest uranium and gold producers in the world...

 reportedly produced 2,721 tonnes U₃O₈ or tU₃O₈ (6 million pounds) from its Nurabad

Nurabad

Nurabad may refer to two locations in Iran:* Nurabad, Fars, in the province of Fars* Nurabad, Lorestan, in the province of Lorestan- See also :* Nurobod District, Tajikistan* Nurobod District...

, Uchkuduk and Zafarabad in-situ recovery facilities.

Europe

European uranium mining supplied just below 3% of the total EU

Nuclear energy in the European Union

Nuclear power in the European Union accounted for approximately 15% of total energy consumption in 2005. The energy policies of the European Union member countries vary significantly. As of January 2010, 14 out of 27 countries have nuclear reactors...

 needs, coming from the Czech Republic and Romania (a total of 526 tU). Production in the Rožňa mine was to be terminated in 2008, but the Czech Government decided in May 2007 to continue mining and extended the lifetime without time limit as long as it remains profitable.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria shut down its facilities for environmental reasons in 1992; terrains were recultivated but recently, there has been certain interest in resuming activities. Industrial mining first started in 1938 and was resumed after 1944 by a joint Soviet-Bulgarian mining company, reorganized in 1956 into the Redki Metali (Rare Metals) government-owned concern. At its peak, it had thirteen thousand employees, operated forty-eight uranium mines and two enrichment plants at Buhovo outside Sofia

Sofia

Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...

 and Eleshnitsa near Bansko

Bansko

Bansko is a town and a popular ski resort in southwestern Bulgaria, located at the foot of the Pirin Mountains at an elevation of 925 m above sea level....

. Yearly production was estimated at 645 t that met about 55% of the needs of Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant

Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant

The Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant in Bulgaria situated north of Sofia and east of Kozloduy, a town on the Danube river, near the border with Romania. It is the country's only nuclear power plant and the largest in the region...

, which had six reactors with a total output of over 3600 MWe at its peak. http://dariknews.bg/view_article.php?article_id=98295

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is the birthplace of industrial scale uranium mining. Uranium mining at Jáchymov

Jáchymov

For other places called Joachimsthal, see Joachimsthal Jáchymov . compl: "Sant Joachim's Sthal" is a spa town in north-west Bohemia in the Czech Republic belonging to the Karlovy Vary Region. It is situated at an altitude of 733 m above sea level in the eponymous St...

 (at that time named Joachimsthal and belonging to Austria-Hungary) started in the 1890s on an industrial scale, after the silver and cobalt production of the deposit declined. Uranium was first utilised to produce mainly yellow colours for glass and porcelain manufacture. After the Curies in France discovered the polonium and radium in tailings from Jáchymov, the town became the first place in the world for commercial radium production from uranium ore. Radioactive water from the mines was also used to set up a health resort still existing today for radon-treatments. Pre–Cold War production is estimated to be around 1,000 t of uranium. From 1947 on the Czech Republic started producing uranium for the Soviet Union. Early mining sites such as Jáchymov, Horní Slavkov

Horní Slavkov

Horní Slavkov is a town in Sokolov District, Karlovy Vary Region, Czech Republic. It has a population of 5,910 .-See also:*Porcelain manufacturing companies in Europe...

 and Příbram

Príbram

Příbram is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic with a population of 35,147. The city is located on the Litavka river and the foothills of Brdy, 60 kilometers south-west of Prague, the country's capital...

 became known as parts of the "Czech Gulag". In the whole, the Czech Republic produced 110.000 t of uranium to 1992 from 64 uranium deposits. The largest deposit Příbram (vein style) produced about 50.000 t of uranium and was mined to a depth of over 1,800 m.

Today, the Rožná

Rožná

Rožná is a village and municipality in Žďár nad Sázavou District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic.The municipality covers an area of , and has a population of 768 ....

 underground facility 55 km northwest of Brno

Brno

Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...

 is Europe's only operating uranium mine, continuously operating since 1957. It produces about 300 t of uranium annually. Since 2007, the Australian company Uran Ltd. is interested in participating in the operations at Rožná, as well as seeking permits with the Czech Ministry of Trade and Resources to open mines in the Czech Republic at other known locations, such as Brzkov

Brzkov

Brzkov is a village and municipality in Jihlava District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic.The municipality covers an area of , and had a population of 266 ....

, Jamné

Jamné

Jamné is a village and municipality in Jihlava District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic.The municipality covers an area of , and has a population of 498 ....

, Polná

Polná

Polná is a town with around 5,000 inhabitants in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic.Founded in the second half of the 12th century, it is first mentioned in a written document in 1242. At that time, there had already been a church in Polná. Originally, Polná was a forest collier settlement,...

 and Věžnice, through its Czech partner Timex Zdice and since 2008 through its subsidiary Urania Mining.

Estonia

During 1946–1952, the Dictyonema

Basidiolichen

Basidiolichens are lichenized members of the Basidiomycota, a much smaller group of lichens than the far more common ascolichens in the Ascomycota. In arctic, alpine, and temperate forests, the most common basidiolichens are in the agaric genus Lichenomphalia and the clavarioid genus Multiclavula...

 argillite

Argillite

An argillite is a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed predominantly of indurated clay particles. Argillaceous rocks are basically lithified muds and oozes. They contain variable amounts of silt-sized particles. The argillites grade into shale when the fissile layering typical of shale is...

 (claystone

Claystone

Claystone is a geological term used to describe a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed primarily of clay-sized particles ....

) was mined and used for uranium production in Sillamäe

Sillamäe

Sillamäe is a town in Ida-Viru County in the northern part of Estonia, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. It has a population of 16,183 and covers an area of 10.54 km²...

.

Finland

In Uusimaa

Uusimaa

Uusimaa, or Nyland in Swedish, is a region in Finland. It borders the regions Finland Proper, Tavastia Proper, Päijänne Tavastia and Kymenlaakso...

, Karelia

Karelia

Karelia , the land of the Karelian peoples, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden...

 and Lapland in Finland, presently (2009) uranium deposits are investigated.

In addition, Talvivaara Mining Company

Talvivaara Mining Company

Talvivaara Mining Company plc is a Finnish-based nickel mining business operating in Finland. Listed on the London and Helsinki Stock Exchanges, the company is a constituent of the FTSE 250 and OMXH25 indices.-History:...

 plc

Public limited company

A public limited company is a limited liability company that sells shares to the public in United Kingdom company law, in the Republic of Ireland and Commonwealth jurisdictions....

 has announced in early 2010 the commencement of uranium recovery as a by-product out of its mine producing mainly nickel, copper, zinc and cobalt in Sotkamo, eastern Finland. Production is expected to be approximately 350 tons of yellowcake annually, making Finland almost self-sufficient in uranium, accounting for approximately 80% of annual demand. However, as Finland lacks the required reprocessing facilities to convert yellowcake into nuclear fuel, the mine's output will need to be sent abroad for reprocessing and enrichment.

Germany

The search for uranium ore intensified during the cold war, but only in East Germany was an extensive uranium mining industry established. Uranium was mined from 1947 to 1990 from mines in Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

 and Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

 by the SDAG Wismut

SDAG Wismut

The SAG/SDAG Wismut was a uranium mining company in East Germany producing 230,400 tonnes of uranium between 1947 and 1990. In 1991 it was transformed into the Wismut GmbH owned by the state of Germany which is now responsible for the recultivation of the former mining and milling areas...

. All the uranium mines were closed after the German reunification

German reunification

German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

 for economic and environmental reasons. Total production in East Germany was 230.400 t of uranium, making it the third largest producer in history behind the USA and Canada. A minor production still takes place at the Königstein mine southeast of Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

 from cleaning of mine water. This production has been 38 t of uranium in 2007.

Hungary

In Hungary uranium mining began in the 1950s around Pécs

Pécs

Pécs is the fifth largest city of Hungary, located on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the south-west of the country, close to its border with Croatia. It is the administrative and economical centre of Baranya county...

 to supply the country's first atomic plant

Paks Nuclear Power Plant

The Paks Nuclear Power Plant , located from Paks, central Hungary, is the first and only operating nuclear power station in Hungary. Altogether, its four reactors produce more than 40 percent of the electrical power generated in the country.-Technical parameters:VVER is the Soviet designation for...

 in Paks

Paks

Paks is a town in Tolna county, central Hungary, on the banks of the Danube River. Paks is the home of the only Hungarian nuclear power plant, which provides about 40% the country's electricity....

. A whole district was built for the mining industry on the outskirt of Pécs, for which the name Uránváros (Uranium city) was given. After the fall of communism, uranium mining was gradually given up because of the high production costs. That caused serious economic problems and a rise of unemployment in Pécs. Recently an Australian company took up the challenge to search for uranium in the Mecsek

Mecsek

Mecsek is a mountain range in southern Hungary. It is situated in the Baranya region, in the north of the city of Pécs.-Geography:The mountains cover an area of approximately 500 km². The highest peak in the mountain range is Zengő , which has an elevation of 682 metres...

.

Portugal

Portugal has some uranium exploration around the Northern Alentejo town of Nisa

Nisa

-Locations:*Nısa - a village in Azerbaijan*Nisa, Portugal - a municipality in the district of Portalegre*Nisa, Turkmenistan - an ancient city , first capital of the Parthians-Organizations:*The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency in Japan....

, although further exploration of this area is subject to resistance from environmental groups

Romania

Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 produced in 2008 around 250 tonnes of uranium., see SovRoms, Crucea - Botusana mine

Crucea - Botusana mine

The Crucea – Botuşana mine is a large mine in the northeast of Romania in Suceava County, 145 km southeast of Suceava and ca. 400 km north of the capital, Bucharest. Crucea - Botuşana represents the second largest uranium reserve in Romania having estimated reserves of 150,000 tonnes of...

 and Băiţa mine

Băiţa mine

The Băiţa mine is a large open pit mine in the northwest of Romania in Bihor County, 123 km southeast of Oradea and 737 km north of the capital, Bucharest...

.

At the village Ciudanoviţa

Ciudanovita

Ciudanoviţa is a commune in Caraş-Severin County, western Romania with a population of 777 people. It is composed of two villages, Ciudanoviţa and Jitin.-References:...

 in the Banat

Banat

The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...

 region in the south west of Romania there are closed down mines which provided ore for 50 years but are now closed.

Slovakia

Uranium was formerly mined in the Novoveská Huta near Spišská Nová Ves from stratiform deposits. A mine for the extraction of uranium ore was established in the hills of Jahodna near the city of Košice

Košice

Košice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary...

. Tournigan Energy is mining Uranium at the Kuriskova mine

Kuriskova mine

The Kuriskova mine is one of the largest uranium mines in Slovakia. The mine is located in Spišská Nová Ves in Spišská Nová Ves District, Košice Region. The mine which is owned by Tournigan Energy has an annual production capacity of over 1.8 million pounds of ore...

, near to Košice. Several other uranium deposits are found in the Považský Inovec Mts.

Považský Inovec

Považský Inovec is a mountain range in western Slovakia, named after the Váh river. It is 48 km long and 15-25 km wide mountain range...

 near Kálnica

Kálnica

Kálnica is a village and municipality in Nové Mesto nad Váhom District in the Trenčín Region of western Slovakia.-Geography:The municipality lies at an elevation of 215 metres and covers an area of 26.404 km² . It has a population of about 1,047....

, in the area of Petrova Hora near Krompachy

Krompachy

Krompachy is a town in Slovakia, with a rich mining and metallurgical history, well-known both in Slovakia and in its close neighboring countries for its Plejsy ski center.- History :...

 and in the Vikartovský chrbát in Kozie chrbty Mts.. None of them is extracted.

Spain

The Australian Berkeley Resources Ltd. and Korea Electric Power

Korea Electric Power

Korea Electric Power Corporation, better known as KEPCO, is the largest electric utility in South Korea,...

 mine Uranium in the Salamanca Province, near the city of Ciudad Rodrigo

Ciudad Rodrigo

Ciudad Rodrigo is a small cathedral city in the province of Salamanca, in western Spain, with a population of about 14,000. It is the seat of a judicial district as well....

. Berkeley Resources is also active in the Cáceres (province)

Cáceres (province)

The province of Cáceres is a province of western Spain, in the northern part of the autonomous community of Extremadura. It is bordered by the provinces of Salamanca, Ávila, Toledo, and Badajoz, and by Portugal....

, the Barcelona Province and the Guadualajara Province.

Sweden

In Sweden, uranium production took place at Ranstadsverket between 1965 and 1969 by mining of alum shale (kind of oil shale

Oil shale

Oil shale, an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock, contains significant amounts of kerogen from which liquid hydrocarbons called shale oil can be produced...

) deposits. The goal was to make Sweden self-supplying with uranium. The high operating costs of the pilot plant (heap leaching

Heap leaching

Heap leaching is an industrial mining process to extract precious metals, copper, uranium, and other compounds from ore.The process has ancient origins; one of the classical methods for the manufacture of copperas was to heap up iron pyrite and collect the leachate from the heap, which was then...

) due to the low concentration of uranium in the shale and the availability at that time of comparatively cheap uranium on the world market caused the mine to be closed, although a much cheaper and more efficient leaching process, using sulfur-consuming bacteria, had by then been developed. Since 2005 there have been investigations on opening new uranium mines in Sweden.

United Kingdom

The South Terras Mine in Cornwall was mined for uranium from 1873 to 1903.

Substantial uranium deposits were found on Orkney in the 1970s. When Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

 proposed a uranium mine on Orkney a campaign followed which successfully argued that uranium mining would mean irreversible environmental, social and psychological damage.

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

In the DRC

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

 uranium is being won. The uranium for the nuclear bombs

Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...

 which were used to bomb Japan

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...

 at the end of the Second World War came from - then - Belgian Congo

Belgian Congo

The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...

. The mining occurs in the mineral rich province of Katanga

Katanga Province

Katanga Province is one of the provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Between 1971 and 1997, its official name was Shaba Province. Under the new constitution, the province was to be replaced by four smaller provinces by February 2009; this did not actually take place.Katanga's regional...

, for example in Shinkolobwe

Shinkolobwe

Shinkolobwe is the name of a town and a mine in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , located near the larger town of Likasi and about 120 miles northwest of Lubumbashi. The former mine was located in the centre of a 400 kilometre long belt of uranified minerals, stretching...

, Mindigi, Kalongwe, Kasompi, Samboa and the Emmanuel Depot in Kolwezi

Kolwezi

Kolwezi is a city in Katanga Province in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, west of Likasi. It is home to an airport and a railway to Lubumbashi. The population is approximately 418,000....

. Major player is Gécamines

Gécamines

Gécamines, or La Générale des Carrières et des Mines, is a state-owned mining company in the Democratic Republic of Congo . Its principal products are copper , cobalt and zinc...

, the state mining company.

The french conglomerate Areva

Areva

AREVA is a French public multinational industrial conglomerate headquartered in the Tour Areva in Courbevoie, Paris. AREVA is mainly known for nuclear power; it also has interests in other energy projects. It was created on 3 September 2001, by the merger of Framatome , Cogema and...

 has an undisclosed contract with Gecamines which is reportedly allows the company to mine unlimited amounts of Uranium in the region

Gabon

In Gabon

Gabon

Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...

 mining used to occur in Oklo

Oklo

Oklo is a region near the town of Franceville, in the Haut-Ogooué province of the Central African state of Gabon. Several natural nuclear fission reactors were discovered in the uranium mines in the region in 1972.-History:...

 but the deposits are reported to be exhausted.

Namibia

Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

 produces uranium at Rossing

Rossing

The Rössing Uranium Mine in Namibia is one of the largest open pit uranium mines in the world and is located in the Namib Desert near the town of Arandis, which is 70 kilometres from the coastal town of Swakopmund. Namibia’s only deepwater harbour, Walvis Bay, is 30 kilometres south of Swakopmund...

 deposit, where an igneous deposit is mined from one of the world's largest open pit mines. The mine is owned by a subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Group

Rio Tinto Group

The Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, British-Australian, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London and Melbourne. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the...

. The Langer Heinrich calcrete uranium deposit was discovered in 1973 and the open pit mine was officially opened in 2007.

Niger

Niger is Africa's leading uranium-producing nation. Uranium is produced from mines at Arlit

Arlit

Arlit is an industrial town and capital of the Arlit Department of the Agadez Region of northern-central Niger, built between the Sahara desert and the eastern edge of the Aïr mountains. It is 200 km south by road from the border with Algeria...

 owned by Areva NC

Areva NC

Areva NC, formerly Cogema is a French company, created in 1976 from the production division of the French government's CEA It is an industrial group active in all stages of the uranium fuel cycle, including uranium mining, conversion, enrichment, spent fuel reprocessing, and recycling...

.

In 2007, production in Niger had a total output of 3720 tonnes U₃O₈ (8.2 million pounds) coming mainly from the Akouta (Cominak) and the Arlit (Somair) mines.

Niger's uranium came to world attention before the US invasion of Iraq, when it was asserted that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium from Niger (see Niger uranium forgeries).

South Africa

South Africa produces uranium from deposits in Precambrian quartz-pebble conglomerate

Conglomerate (geology)

A conglomerate is a rock consisting of individual clasts within a finer-grained matrix that have become cemented together. Conglomerates are sedimentary rocks consisting of rounded fragments and are thus differentiated from breccias, which consist of angular clasts...

s of the Witwatersrand Basin

Witwatersrand basin

The Witwatersrand Basin is a geological formation in South Africa holding the world's largest known gold reserves and having produced over 1.5 billion ounces. The basin straddles the old provinces of Transvaal and the Orange Free State and is of the same period as the Vredefort impact of 2.023 Ga...

, at Brakpan

Brakpan, Gauteng

Brakpan is a gold and uranium mining town with 346,735 inhabitants in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The name Brakpan was first used by the British in the 1880s because of a non-perennial lake that would annually dry to become a "brackish pan"....

 and Krugersdorp, Gauteng

Krugersdorp, Gauteng

Krugersdorp is a mining city with between 378,821 and 408,065 inhabitants in the West Rand of the Gauteng province of South Africa. Krugersdorp was founded in 1887 by Marthinus Pretorius and named after Paul Kruger....

.

China

China mined in 2007 636 tonnes of U₃O₈, a decrease of 17% of its production in 2006.

India

In Nalgonda District

Nalgonda district

Nalgonda / Nallagonda District is a district in Andhra Pradesh. It has a population of 3,483,648 of which 13.32% is urban as of 2001.-Etymology:Its name is derived from two Telugu words Nalla & Konda i.e...

, the Rajiv Gandhi Tiger Reserve (the only tiger

Tiger

The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...

 project in Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...

) has been forced to surrender over 3,000 sq. kilometres to uranium mining following a directive from the Central Ministry of Environment and Forests.

In 2007, India was able to extract 229 tonnes of U₃O₈ from its soil.
On July 19 of 2011, Indian officials announced that the Tumalapalli mine in Andhra Pradesh state of India could provide more than 170,000 tonnes of uranium, making it as the world's largest uranium mine.Production of the ore is slated to begin from next year.

As India vies for enriched uranium from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) members to get the raw material for its nuclear power plants, the scientists here have found massive uranium deposits in the mines of Tumalapalli in Andhra Pradesh. The site has the potential to emerge as the largest reserve of the key nuclear fuel in the world.

The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) recently discovered that the upcoming mine in Tumalapalli has close to 49,000 tonne uranium reserve. This could just be a shot in the arm for India's nuclear power aspirations as it is three times the original estimate of the area's deposits.

In fact, there were indications that the total quantity of uranium could go up to 1.5 lakh tonnes, which would make it among the largest uranium mines in the world.

The fact that Tumalapalli might have uranium reserves has been known for a while, but it took four years for the estimate to come to the present level.

Jordan

Jordan, the only Middle East country with confirmed uranium, is estimated to have around 140,000 tonnes in its uranium reserves plus a further 59,000 tonnes in phosphate deposits. Although no uranium has been mined yet, it was announced in 2008 that the Jordanian Government signed an agreement with the French Company AREVA

Areva

AREVA is a French public multinational industrial conglomerate headquartered in the Tour Areva in Courbevoie, Paris. AREVA is mainly known for nuclear power; it also has interests in other energy projects. It was created on 3 September 2001, by the merger of Framatome , Cogema and...

 to explore for uranium. This will benefit them on building a future nuclear plant in Jordan.

See also

• List of uranium mines
• Nuclear fuel cycle
  Nuclear fuel cycle
  The nuclear fuel cycle, also called nuclear fuel chain, is the progression of nuclear fuel through a series of differing stages. It consists of steps in the front end, which are the preparation of the fuel, steps in the service period in which the fuel is used during reactor operation, and steps in...
  
  
• Peak uranium
  Peak uranium
  Peak uranium is the point in time that the maximum global uranium production rate is reached. After that peak, the rate of production enters a terminal decline. While uranium is used in nuclear weapons, its primary use is for energy generation via nuclear fission of uranium-235 isotope in a nuclear...
  
  
• Radiation poisoning
  Radiation poisoning
  Acute radiation syndrome also known as radiation poisoning, radiation sickness or radiation toxicity, is a constellation of health effects which occur within several months of exposure to high amounts of ionizing radiation...
  
  
• Radioactive contamination
  Radioactive contamination
  Radioactive contamination, also called radiological contamination, is radioactive substances on surfaces, or within solids, liquids or gases , where their presence is unintended or undesirable, or the process giving rise to their presence in such places...
  
  
• Uranium market
  Uranium market
  The uranium market, like all commodity markets, has a history of volatility, moving not only with the standard forces of supply and demand, but also to whims of geopolitics. It has also evolved particularities of its own in response to the unique nature and use of this material.The only significant...
  
  
• Uranium metallurgy
  Uranium metallurgy
  In materials science and materials engineering, uranium metallurgy is the study of the physical and chemical behavior of uranium and its alloys....
  
  
• Uranium mining debate
  Uranium mining debate
  The uranium mining debate covers the political and environmental controversies of the mining of uranium for use in either nuclear power or nuclear weapons.-Background:...
  
  
• Uranium mining controversy in Kakadu National Park
  Uranium mining controversy in Kakadu National Park
  Kakadu National Park, located in the Northern Territory of Australia, possesses within its boundaries a number of large uranium deposits. The uranium is legally owned by the Australian Government, and is sold internationally, having a large effect on the Australian economy...
  
  
• Uranium reserves
  Uranium reserves
  Uranium reserves are reserves of recoverable uranium, regardless of isotope, based on a set market price. The list given here is based on Uranium 2009: Resources, Production and Demand, a joint report by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency published in 2010....
  
  

External links

• Impacts of Uranium Mining at Port Radium, NWT, Canada.
• Health Impacts for Uranium Mine and Mill Residents - Science Issues.
• Uranium mining left a legacy of death.
• Biorecovery of Uranium from Minewaters into Pure Mineral Product at the Expense of Plant Wastes Advanced Materials Research Vols. 71-73 (2009) pp 621–624
• World Uranium Mining (giving production statistics), World Nuclear Association
  World Nuclear Association
  The World Nuclear Association , formerly the Uranium Institute, is an international organization that promotes nuclear power and supports the many companies that comprise the global nuclear industry...
  
  , July 2006
• Uranium resources and nuclear energy Energy Watch Group, December 2006
• Further explanation of ISL
• Evaluation of Cost of Seawater Uranium Recovery and Technical Problems toward Implementation
• Watch Uranium, a 1990 documentary on the risks of uranium mining
• World Supply of Uranium — World Nuclear Association
  World Nuclear Association
  The World Nuclear Association , formerly the Uranium Institute, is an international organization that promotes nuclear power and supports the many companies that comprise the global nuclear industry...
  
  , March 2007
• The Guardian (22 Jan. 2008): Awards shine spotlight on big business green record
• Southwest Research and Information Center: Shedding Light on Uranium Operations in Siberia
• Sustainability of Uranium Mining and Milling: Toward Quantifying Resources and Eco-Efficiency
• New Uranium Mining halted at Canyon
• Uranium glows ever hotter (Investors Chronicle, UK)
• Documentary about Uranium Mining in Australia
• The Return of Navajo Boy, a documentary about Native Americans struggling with the legacy that uranium mining left on their land