World Uranium Mining

(Updated August 2012)

• About 64 percent of the world's production of uranium from mines is from Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia. 
• An increasing proportion of uranium, now 45%, 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 85% of demand for power generation. 

Kazakhstan produces the largest share of uranium from mines (36% of world supply from mines), followed by Canada (17%) and Australia (11%). 

Production from mines (tonnes U) 

WNA Market Report data

WNA expects 2012 production to be 52,221 tU. UxC predicts 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 37%.  In situ leach (ISL, or ISR) mining has been steadily increasing its share of the total, mainly due to Kazakhstan.  In 2011 production was as follows:

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

Conventional mines have a mill where the ore is crushed, ground and then leached with sulfuric acid to dissolve the uranium oxides. At the mill of a conventional mine, or the treatment plant of an ISL operation, the uranium then separated by ion exchange before being dried and packed, usually as U3O8. Some mills and ISL operations use carbonate leaching instead of sulfuric acid, depending on the orebody. Where uranium is recovered as 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 2011, eight companies marketed 85% of the world's uranium mine production:

   

The largest-producing uranium mines in 2011 were: 

   

The next 20 uranium mines in 2010 were: 

 

  

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 72,680 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:

Estimated future production from existing mines plus new projects such as these is however not sufficient to meet the demand requirements in WNA's upper scenario to 2030 (2030 demand 137,000 tU; 2030 primary production 97,000 tU).

Known Recoverable Resources of Uranium 2009 

 

Reasonably Assured Resources plus Inferred Resources, to US$ 130/kg U, 1/1/09, from OECD NEA & IAEA, Uranium 2009: Resources, Production and Demand ("Red Book").

 

Sources:
World Nuclear Association