World Uranium Mining Production

(Updated July 2018)

• Over two-thirds of the world's production of uranium from mines is from Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia.
• An increasing amount of uranium, now 50%, 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 almost all the demand for power generation.

Kazakhstan produces the largest share of uranium from mines (39% of world supply from mines in 2017), followed by Canada (22%) and Australia (10%).

Production from mines (tonnes U)

* Data from the World Nuclear Association. NB: the figures in this table are liable to change as new data becomes available.

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. In situ leach (ISL, or ISR) mining has been steadily increasing its share of the total, mainly due to Kazakhstan, and in 2017 accounted for half of production. In 2017 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 (especially in the USA) 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 again with Kazakhstan's multinational ownership structure. Over half of uranium mine production is from state-owned mining companies, some of which prioritise secure supply over market considerations. In 2017, the top 10 companies by production marketed 86% of the world's uranium production:

Note that these figures are based on marketed share of production, not joint venture shares.

The largest-producing uranium mines in 2017 were:

In some rows there is more than a single mine, but they are operated and reported jointly.

World uranium production and reactor requirements (tonnes U)

Sources: OECD-NEA/IAEA, World Nuclear Association

Known recoverable resources of uranium 2015

Reasonably assured resources plus inferred resources (recoverable), to US$ 130/kg U, 1/1/15, from OECD NEA & IAEA, Uranium 2016: Resources, Production and Demand ('Red Book').
The total to US$ 260/kg U is 7.64 million tonnes U.

Notes & references

General Sources

OECD NEA & IAEA, Uranium 2016: Resources, Production and Demand ('Red Book').
World Nuclear Association, The Nuclear Fuel Report 2017