World Uranium Mining Production

(Updated July 2013)

• 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 86% of demand for power generation.

Kazakhstan produces the largest share of uranium from mines (36.5% of world supply from mines in 2012), followed by Canada (15%) and Australia (12%).

Production from mines (tonnes U)

*WNA Market Report data

Mining methods have been changing. In 1990, 55% of world production came from underground mines, but this shrunk dramatically to 1999, with 33% then. From 2000 the new Canadian mines increased it again, and with Olympic Dam it is now 37%. In situ leach (ISL, or ISR) mining has been steadily increasing its share of the total, mainly due to Kazakhstan. In 2012 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 2012, eight companies marketed 88% of the world's uranium mine production:

The largest-producing uranium mines in 2012 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 and this shrunk to 14% in 2012).

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  to 2030 in the WNA 2011 Market Report (2030 demand 137,000 tU in upper scenario, 108,000 tU in reference scenario; 2030 primary production 97,000 tU in upper scenario, 89,000 tU in reference scenario). However, price signals leading to increased production and also secondary sources will close the gap.

Known Recoverable Resources of Uranium 2011

Reasonably Assured Resources plus Inferred Resources, to US$ 130/kg U, 1/1/11, from OECD NEA & IAEA, Uranium 2011: Resources, Production and Demand ("Red Book").
The total to US$ 260/kg U is 7,096,600 tonnes U, and Namibia moves up ahead of Niger.

Sources:
World Nuclear Association