How many uranium sites are in africa

The largest application for uranium around the world is in power generation. The fuel source extracted from uranium is an extremely strong source of energy and is widely used in technologically advanced nuclear power stations. It works by stimulating a chain reaction in which radioactivity creates heat that drives turbines that generate electricity.

It only became known that Uranium is radioactive in the s. The French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel left a bit of uranium on a photographic plate and the plate turned cloudy overnight. Uranium is mined in Africa, Kazakhstan, Australia and Canada. Analysts estimate that uranium reserves across Africa encompass some K tonnes. Niger is 4th in the world in terms of Uranium production figures at 4, tonnes, and Namibia weighs in at fifth place with 3, tonnes.

The Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa not only holds the biggest gold reserve in the world, it is also one of the main areas for uranium mining. Uranium is found in the Krugersdorp and Brakpan regions in Precambrian quartz-pebble composites.

Although the deposits are low grade, the output is in particularly high tonnages. Only around a kilogram of uranium is yielded for every 1, kilograms of ore.

One of the major players in African uranium mining is AngloGold Ltd. The company owns an underground mine that averages tonnes of output annually. The biggest uranium project in Africa is the Ezulweni Project. Started in the beginning of , Ezolweni is run from a mine in Randfontein in the Gauteng province of South Africa.

Indicated resources NI compliant are tU at an average grade of 0. Mining would be underground. Radiometric sorting shows promise and several flowsheets are being considered to give three products. Original focus was on the central zone but in a further higher-grade north zone was identified. Mineralisation is in sandstones, mostly flat-lying, and the project is 20 km north of the Guinean border.

A pre-feasibility study is envisaged after This comprises several tenements — one some km west of the others, with shallow calcrete deposits on the Reguibat Craton in the north of the country, close to Algeria and Mali in the Sahara desert. The exploration target would double the resource.

Hippolyte is the main eastern deposit and will be the plant location. In Aura announced positive results in beneficiating ore about sevenfold to concentrate fine carnotite, with tests showing rapid alkaline leaching.

In the company said that the operating cost would be reduced by one-third due to metallurgical optimization, and in it was evaluating the feasibility of vanadium recovery as by-product. The company applied for a mining lease in May and this was granted in December following an environmental and social impact assessment. A definitive feasibility study was completed in July for a simple truck and shovel mine up to 5 metres deep on the eastern deposit.

In August an update of the definitive feasibility study confirmed proved and probable ore reserves of tU at 0. Good quality artesian water will come from km away. Three areas are under investigation: Haute Moulouya, Wafagga and Sirwa. The first two have palaeochannel deposits. Toro Energy holds tenements in Haute Moulouya area. The amount of uranium in Morocco's phosphates is reported to be very large, and the feasibility of recovering uranium as a by-product of mining them is under active consideration.

In , 27 million tonnes were mined for fertilizer. In March Russia signed a cooperation agreement with Nigeria, including provision for uranium exploration and mining in the country.

A further broad agreement in June envisaged the construction of a Russian power reactor and a new research reactor. See also Emerging Nuclear Countries information page. Uranium One is undertaking a definitive feasibility study for its Mkuju River project in the Namtumbo district of southern Tanzania, incorporating the Nyota deposit which is the main part of it, km southwest of Dar es Salaam.

Government environmental and other approvals are well advanced and Mantra Tanzania Ltd was granted a Special Mining Licence for the project in April The government has allocated km 2 of land inside the 50, km 2 world heritage Selous Game Reserve to the project — 0. CIM-compliant resources are 58, tU, including measured and indicated resources of 48, tU and inferred resources of 10, tU with average grade 0. Proven and probable reserves early in were quoted at 25, tU at 0. The resources are extensive, in sandstone at shallow depths, and present plans are to mine in multiple pits feeding a single mill with conventional acid leach and resin in pulp recovery.

One-third of the total resource is below the water table, so the ISL potential could be greater, and the company early in was actively considering this. A preliminary feasibility study on heap leaching lower grade ore as phase 2 of the project was under way, and results look very promising. In the south, close to Uranium One's Mkuju River project and with similar geology, Australia's Uranex NL was developing its Mkuju Uranium project , with Likuyu North and other deposits which have significant mineralisation.

A mineral resource estimate for Likuyu North in suggested about tU. In central Tanzania some 80 km west of Dodoma and adjacent to its Bahi deposit, Uranex in reported inferred resources of 12, tU in a shallow deposit at Manyoni , which it hoped to mine in The Itigi prospect is 50 km west of Manyoni.

Mining approval for Bahi was given by the government in In Uranex suspended its uranium developments and turned to graphite, focused on its Nachu deposit, and it changed its name to Magnis Resources.

In the south-east, East Africa Resources based in Perth was investigating its Madaba-Mkuju sandstone roll-front deposits, originally discovered in In the company exited uranium exploration and merged with Threat Protect Australia.

Drilling was undertaken in , but as of mid no resource data had been published. The government announced a new uranium mining law to be put in place in November to assist diversification of its mining sector. It quoted known resources of 21, tU at the above sites. The president announced that no new mining licences would be issued until Tanzania "puts things in order" and that the government would review all existing mining licences with foreign investors.

The changes seem focused on gold. This was previously being developed by Denison, which announced a NI compliant resource in March , based on shallow orebodies: Mutanga, Dibwe and Dibwe East. The project has two contiguous year mining licences, environmental approval and radioactive materials licence. The Mutanga pit would be x m and the Dibwe pit 10 km southwest would be x m. First production is envisaged in The project, formerly known as Kariba, was developed by OmegaCorp prior to its acquisition by Denison and then GoviEx.

The Chirundu project also close to the Zimbabwe border comprises the Njame and Gwabe deposits and has tU as measured and indicated resources, with tU inferred mid It includes the Siamboka prospect. A feasibility study was commenced but then deferred due to low prices.

African Energy Resources originally held these deposits but in sold the whole Chirundu project and Kariba Valley tenements including the Chirundu mining licence to GoviEx, giving it almost contiguous tenements of approximately km in strike length parallel with the border, including three contiguous mining permits.

The combined mineral resources are tU measured and indicated resources at 0. In July the government sought to terminate the Chirundu mining licence but GoviEx appealed and it was reinstated in May GoviEx also bought the Northern Luangwa Valley project in northern Zambia from African Energy Resources, including the Sitwe North prospect where the uranium mineralisation occurs in multiple horizons and is open in all directions.

This is primarily a large copper mine, with two open pits 7 km apart. In it produced , tonnes of copper. Following a bankable feasibility study on uranium recovery the company announced tU indicated resources at 0. The uranium is in discrete uranium-enriched zones that are being mined separately from the copper ore and stockpiled.

The Malundwe open pit is the first of two uranium sources within the overall project, where the mineral is in discrete veins in the broader copper mineralisation. In January the company said that it had 4. In mid Equinox was taken over by Barrick Gold Corp. Zambia has upgraded its mining legislation to take in uranium, following detailed consultation with the IAEA.

It started issuing uranium mining licences late in , and in was undertaking a further revision of regulations regarding uranium exploration and mining. Other reports mention a deposit at Kanyemba, north of Harare, in which Iran has expressed some interest. Uranium in Africa Updated August Africa has considerable mineral deposits, including uranium. Exploration and mine development is proceeding in countries which have not hitherto supplied uranium.

Gabon has been a significant uranium supplier in the past. Algeria A lot of uranium exploration occurred in the s, resulting in the discovery of the Tahaggart deposit, as well as other mineralisation. Botswana A-Cap Resources' Letlhakane project in the northeast of the country comprises Gojwane and Serule orebodies, with Gorgon, Gorgon South, Mokobaesi, and Kraken prospects covering the former in a flat shallow deposit, to 75 m over 9 km.