Mining and Milling the Uranium

Digging the uranium out of the ground is only the first step in the long process before it can be used as fuel. Unlike fossil fuels, the uranium is unsuitable for use as it found.

The Uranium Fuel Cookbook

First it has to be removed from the ground which is usually from an open-cast pit (possibly up to 250 meters deep) or from underground workings. In an open-cast mine, enormous amounts of ore and over-burden (the material covering the ore) have to be removed by huge trucks. The material then has to be milled using large amounts of energy and materials, much of it highly toxic.

The diagram below shows the process necessary to produce the 30 tonnes of material required to run a 1 GW power station for one year.

The amount of rock to be mined and milled to obtain 1 kg uranium depends on the ore grade.

At a grade of 0.1% uranium, one metric tonne of rock has to be mined and transported to obtain 1 kg uranium in the mill. This is ten times as much as from rock at a grade of 1%, containing 10 kg uranium per Mg rock. Consequently, the mining energy input per kilogram uranium is at least ten times as large. At a grade of 0.01% the energy input is 100 times as large. [Storm]

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