Mining for Uranium

According to the World Nuclear Association, the largest national share of nuclear reserve was Australia (1,243,000 tones, 23%), followed by Kazakhstan (817,000 t, 15%), Russia (546,000 t, 10%), South Africa (435,000 t, 8%), Canada (423,000 t, 8%), USA (342,000 t, 6%), Brazil (278,000 t, 5%), Namibia (275,000 t, 5%), Niger (274,000 t, 5%), Ukraine (200,000 t, 4%) and Jordan (112,000 t, 2%).

With current technology, there are three main techniques in use for uranium mining. These are open pit mining, underground mining, and in situ leach mining. In open pit mining, the land above the material is blasted and dug away to reveal the ore body. After they have found the fuel deposit, it will be blasted, excavated and removed with dump trucks. Underground mining is carried with access tunnels, and drilling and blasting. In situ leach mining involves drilling boreholes down into an ore body, pumping a leaching fluid into the ore and then pumping the resulting solution to the surface to extract the uranium. The leaching fluid is sometimes a combination of acids or sometimes alkaline solution. The type of the solution used depends on the type of the ore body.

Ranger Uranium Mining Plant in Kakadu, Australia