World Uranium Mining

(Updated December 2011)

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

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

Production from mines (tonnes U) 

Country	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Kazakhstan	3300	3719	4357	5279	6637	8521	14020	17803
Canada	10457	11597	11628	9862	9476	9000	10173	9783
Australia	7572	8982	9516	7593	8611	8430	7982	5900
Namibia	2036	3038	3147	3067	2879	4366	4626	4496
Niger	3143	3282	3093	3434	3153	3032	3243	4198
Russia	3150	3200	3431	3262	3413	3521	3564	3562
Uzbekistan	1598	2016	2300	2260	2320	2338	2429	2400
USA	779	878	1039	1672	1654	1430	1453	1660
Ukraine (est)	800	800	800	800	846	800	840	850
China (est)	750	750	750	750	712	769	750	827
Malawi							104	670
South Africa	758	755	674	534	539	655	563	583
India (est)	230	230	230	177	270	271	290	400
Czech Repub.	452	412	408	359	306	263	258	254
Brazil	310	300	110	190	299	330	345	148
Romania (est)	90	90	90	90	77	77	75	77
Pakistan (est)	45	45	45	45	45	45	50	45
France	0	7	7	5	4	5	8	7
Germany	104	77	94	65	41	0	0	0
total world	35 574	40 178	41 719	39 444	41 282	43 853	50 772	53 663
tonnes U3O8	41 944	47 382	49 199	46 516	48 683	51 716	59 875	63 285
percentage of world demand			65%	63%	64%	68%	78%	78%

WNA Market Report data

WNA expects 2011 production to be 56,050 tU. UxC predicts further increase to about 63,600 tU in 2012.
Mining methods have been changing. In 1990, 55% of world production came from underground mines, but this shrunk dramatically to 1999, with 33% then. From 2000 the new Canadian mines increased it again, and with Olympic Dam it is now one third.  In situ leach (ISL, or ISR) mining has been steadily increasing its share of the total, mainly due to Kazakhstan.  In 2010 production was as follows:

Method	tonnes U	%
Conventional underground	15,095	28%
Conventional open pit	13,541	25%
In situ leach (ISL)	22,108	41%
By-product	2920	5%

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

Conventional mines have a mill where the ore is crushed, ground and then leached with sulfuric acid to dissolve the uranium oxides. At the mill of a conventional mine, or the treatment plant of an ISL operation, the uranium then separated by ion exchange before being dried and packed, usually as U3O8. Some mills and ISL operations use carbonate leaching instead of sulfuric acid, depending on the orebody. Where uranium is recovered a s a by-product, eg of copper or phosphate, the treatment process is likely to be more complex.
During the 1990s the uranium production industry was consolidated by takeovers, mergers and closures, but this has diversified in recent years with Kazakhstan's diverse ownership structure. In 2010, ten companies marketed 87% of the world's uranium mine production:

Company	tonnes U	%
Cameco	8758	16
Areva	8319	16
KazAtomProm	8116	15
Rio Tinto	6293	12
ARMZ	4311	8
Uranium One	2855	5
Navoi	2400	4
BHP Billiton	2330	4
Paladin	2089	4
Sopamin	1450	3
AngloGold	563	1
Denison	555	1
Heathgate	354	1
Mestena	288	1
Other	4982	9
Total	53,663	100%

   

The largest-producing uranium mines in 2010 were: 

Mine	Country	Main owner	Type	Production (tU)	% of world
McArthur River	Canada	Cameco	underground	7654	14
Ranger	Australia	ERA (Rio Tinto 68%)	open pit	3216	6
Rossing	Namibia	Rio Tinto (69%)	open pit	3077	6
Kraznokamensk	Russia	ARMZ	underground	2920	5
Arlit	Niger	Somair/ Areva	open pit	2650	5
Tortkuduk	Kazakhstan	Katco JV/ Areva	ISL	2439	5
Olympic Dam	Australia	BHP Billiton	by-product/ underground	2330	4
Budenovskoye 2	Kazakhstan	Karatau JV/Kazatomoprom	ISL	1708	3
South Inkai	Kazakhstan	Betpak Dala JV/ Uranium One	ISL	1701	3
Inkai	Kazakhstan	Inkai JV/Cameco	ISL	1642	3
Top 10 total				29,337	55%

   

The next 20 uranium mines in 2010 were: 

Akouta	Niger	Cominak/ Areva	U'ground	1548
Rabbit Lake (Eagle Point)	Canada	Cameco	U'ground	1463
Langer Heinrich	Namibia	Paladin	Open pit	1419
Central Mynkuduk	Kazakhstan	Ken Dala JSC	ISL	1242
East Mynkuduk	Kazakhstan	Stepnoye RU	ISL	1029
Akdala	Kazakhstan	Betpak Dala JV/ Uranium One	ISL	1027
Karamuran	Kazakhstan	Kazatomprom	ISL	1017
Myunkum	Kazakhstan	Katco JV	ISL	889
Uchkuduk - Northern Mining	Uzbekistan	Navoi	ISL
Zafarabad - Central Mining	Uzbekistan	Navoi	ISL
Nurabad - South Mining	Uzbekistan	Navoi	ISL	total 2400
VostGOK - 3 mines	Ukraine	VostGOK	U'ground	850
Zarechnoye	Kazakhstan	Zarechnoye JV/ Uranium One	ISL	778
Irkol	Kazakhstan	Semizbai JV/ Kazatomprom	ISL	750
Budenovskoye 1 & 3	Kazalkhstan	Akbastau JV/ Kazatomaprom	ISL	740
Smith Ranch, Highland, Crow Butte	USA	Cameco	ISL	684
Kayelekera	Malawi	Paladin	Open pit	670
McClean Lake	Canada	Areva	Open pit	666
Vaal River	South Africa	AngloGold	By-product	563
Kanzhugan	Kazakhstan	Taukent/ Kazatomprom	ISL	562

  

Source:World Nuclear Association

New Mines 

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

Some of the new mines expected to reach substantial production in the next few years are:

Vitimsky	Russia	2011
Dominion Reefs	South Africa	2012
Trekkopje	Namibia	2013
Valencia	Namibia	2014
Cigar Lake	Canada	2015
Omahola	Namibia	2015
Imouraren	Niger	2014 or 2015
Husab	Namibia	2016 or 2016
Morocco (phosphate by-product)	Morocco	2017
Dornod	Mongolia	2018

Estimated future production from existing mines plus new projects such as these is sufficient to meet the demand requirements in WNA's upper scenario to beyond 2040 (2040 demand 176,000 tU; 2040 primary production 192,000 tU).

Known Recoverable Resources* of Uranium 2007 

	tonnes U	percentage of world
Australia	1,243,000	23%
Kazakhstan	817,000	15%
Russia	546,000	10%
South Africa	435,000	8%
Canada	423,000	8%
USA	342,000	6%
Brazil	278,000	5%
Namibia	275,000	5%
Niger	274,000	5%
Ukraine	200,000	4%
Jordan	112,000	2%
Uzbekistan	111,000	2%
India	73,000	1%
China	68,000	1%
Mongolia	62,000	1%
other	210,000	4%
World total	5,469,000

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

Sources:
World Nuclear Association