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Uranium Mining in Australia and Canada URANIUM SUPPLY - AUSTRALIA AND CANADA Note: In the following t = tonnes (metric tons), quantities are mostly in tonnes of uranium (not U3O8). A$ = $C 0.87 in December 2002. Australian Mining Early Uranium Mining In Australia uranium ores were mined in the 1930s at Radium Hill and Mount Painter, South Australia, to recover minute amounts of radium for medical purposes. Some uranium was also recovered and used as a bright yellow pigment in glass and ceramics. Following requests from the British and United States governments, systematic exploration for uranium began in 1944. In 1948 the Commonwealth Government offered tax-free rewards for the discovery of uranium orebodies. As a result, uranium was discovered at Rum Jungle in 1949, and in the South Alligator River region (1953) of the Northern Territory, then at Mary Kathleen (1954) and Westmoreland (1956) in north west Queensland. In 1952 a decision was taken to mine Rum Jungle, NT and it opened in 1954 as a Commonwealth Government enterprise. Radium Hill, SA was reopened in 1954. Mining began at Mary Kathleen, Qld in 1958 and in the South Alligator region, NT in 1959. Production at most mines ceased by 1964, and Rum Jungle closed in 1971 either when ore reserves were exhausted or contracts were filled. Sales of some 7730 tonnes of uranium from these operations were to supply material primarily intended for USA and UK weapons programs at that time. However much of it was used in civil power production. The development of nuclear power stimulated a second wave of exploration activity in the late 1960s. In the Northern Territory, Ranger was discovered in 1969, Nabarlek and Koongarra in 1970, and Jabiluka in 1971. New sales contracts (for electric power generation) were made by Mary Kathleen Uranium Ltd., Queensland Mines Ltd. (for Nabarlek), and Ranger Uranium Mines Pty. Ltd., in the years 1970-72. Successive governments (both Liberal Coalition and Labor) approved these, and Mary Kathleen began recommissioning its mine and mill in 1974. Consideration by the Commonwealth Government of additional sales contracts was deferred pending the findings of the Ranger Uranium Environmental Inquiry, and its decision in the light of these. Mary Kathleen recommenced production of uranium oxide in 1976, after the Commonwealth Government had taken up a 42% share in the company. Recent Uranium Mining The Government announced in 1977 that new uranium mining was to proceed, commencing with the Ranger project in the Northern Territory. In 1979 it decided to sell its interest in Ranger, and as a result Energy Resources of Australia Ltd was set up to own and operate the mine. The mine opened in 1981, producing 2800 t/yr of uranium, sold to utilities in several countries. It has enough ore to maintain production though to 2010. Production over three years to mid 2002 averaged 3533 t/yr of uranium. In 1980, Queensland Mines opened Nabarlek in the same region of Northern Territory. The orebody was mined out in one dry season and the ore stockpiled for treatment. About 9160 tonnes of uranium were produced and sold to Japan, Finland and France, 1981-88. At the end of 1982 Mary Kathleen in Queensland had depleted its ore and finally closed down after 4070 tonnes of uranium had been produced in its second phase of operation. This then became the site of Australia's first major rehabilitation project on a uranium mine site, which was completed at the end of 1985. The Rum Jungle Rehabilitation project also took place in the 1980s. In 1983 the Labor Government reviewed its uranium policy and decided upon allowing exports from three mines only: Ranger, Nabarlek and Olympic Dam. This policy persisted until 1996, despite the fact that Nabarlek ceased production by 1988.  During 1988 Western Mining Corporation's Olympic Dam project commenced operations. This is a large underground mine at Roxby Downs, South Australia, producing copper, with uranium and gold as by-products. Annual production of uranium started at some 1300 tonnes, with sales to Sweden, UK, South Korea and Japan. After a A$ 1.9 billion expansion project, production increased to over 4000 tonnes uranium per year by mid 2001. Both Ranger and Nabarlek mines are on aboriginal land in the Alligator Rivers region of the Northern Territory, close to the Kakadu National Park. In fact the Ranger and two other leases are surrounded by the National Park but were deliberately excluded from it when the park was established. Ranger is served by the township of Jabiru, constructed largely for that purpose. Nabarlek employees were based in Darwin and commuted by air. The aboriginal people of the NT receive royalties on sales of uranium from NT mines. To mid 2002 these totalled A$ 172 million from Ranger alone. The Olympic Dam mine is on formerly pastoral land in the middle of South Australia. A town to accommodate 3500 people was built at Roxby Downs to service the mine. Beverley in SA, a small (850 t/yr) in situ leach (ISL) mine similar to those providing most US uranium, recorded first production in 2001. Honeymoon, a similar mine nearby, has all approvals to commence plant construction. Jabiluka, NT will be a conventional underground mine adjacent to Ranger, but development is stalled pending negotiations with traditional landowners. Further projects which may be brought forward include: Kintyre, WA; Koongarra, NT; Manyingee, WA; and Yeelirrie, WA. From 1981 to 1996, Australian uranium exports averaged about 3400 tonnes per year - less than ten percent of the world market, though Australia has nearly one third of the world's measured resources of uranium. By mid 2001 the rate of production and export had increased to over 8100 tonnes uranium per year. With four producing mines Australian uranium production is likely to reach 9000 tonnes uranium per year by about 2004. This will be about a quarter of projected world mine production then. Canadian Mining Early Uranium Mining In Canada, uranium ores first came to public attention in the early 1930s when the Eldorado Gold Mining Company began operations at Port Radium, Northwest Territories, to recover radium. A refinery to produce radium was built the following year at Port Hope, Ontario, some 5000 km away. Exploration for uranium began in earnest in 1942, in response to a demand for military purposes. The strategic nature of such material resulted in a ban on prospecting and mining of all radioactive materials across Canada. In 1944, the federal government took over the Eldorado company and formed a new Crown corporation which later became Eldorado Nuclear Ltd. Uranium exploration was restricted to the joint efforts of Eldorado and the Geological Survey of Canada. Postwar, uranium exploration gathered pace when the ban on private prospecting was lifted in 1947. Deposits around the Bancroft, Ontario, area were discovered by the early 1950s, and the first discovery in Ontario's Elliot Lake region was in 1953. The northern Saskatchewan uranium province was also discovered in the 1950s and Eldorado Nuclear began mining at Beaverlodge in 1953. By 1956 thousands of radioactive occurrences had been discovered. Several proved to be viable deposits, and by 1959, 23 mines with 19 treatment plants were in operation in five districts. Of these 19, about eleven in the Elliot Lake area, including the largest plants, would come to be operated by Rio Algom Ltd and Denison Mines Ltd. Three other plants were located near Bancroft, three in northern Saskatchewan and two in Northwest Territories. This first phase of Canadian uranium production peaked in 1959 when more than 12 000 tonnes of uranium was produced. The uranium yielded C$ 330 million in export revenue, more than for any other mineral export from Canada that year. However, this period marked the end of cost-plus production for export, and over the next few years the number of mines declined to four. Uranium production in the Bancroft area and at Beaverlodge, Sk, ceased in 1982 and the last of the labour-intensive, lower-grade Elliot Lake mines closed in 1996. The level of uranium exploration waned in the 1960s but recovered during the 1970s in response to world market conditions. During the 1960s the federal government supported the domestic uranium industry by initiating a stockpiling program which ended in 1974, after some 7000 tonnes of uranium was purchased at a cost of C$ 100 million. Uranium exploration was revived by expectations of nuclear power growth, and as a result several new uranium deposits were discovered in northern Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin, starting in the late 1960s.  Recent Uranium Mining In 1968 the Rabbit Lake deposit was discovered in northern Saskatchewan, and was brought into production in 1975. In that year Cluff Lake and Key Lake were discovered on the west and south of the same Athabasca Basin, and these started up in 1980 and 1983 respectively. Exploration expenditure in the region peaked at this time, resulting in the discoveries of Midwest, McClean Lake and Cigar Lake. Then in 1988 the newly-formed Cameco Corporation discovered the massive McArthur River deposit. In the late 1970s the Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation, a provincial crown corporation, had taken a 20% interest in the Cluff Lake development and a 50% interest in Key Lake. In 1988 this merged with Eldorado Nuclear Ltd to form Cameco Corporation, now the world's leading uranium producer. In 1991 Cameco made its first public share issue. Canada's uranium production in 2001 was about 12 500 tonnes, one third of world mine output, all from mines in northern Saskatchewan. Canada¹s uranium ore reserves are about 14% of world total. Through the 1990s Cameco's Key Lake was the world's largest high-grade uranium mine, supplying 15% of the world's uranium mine production in 1997. Cameco is also owner and operator of Rabbit Lake, another major producer. The other uranium mine in operation in the late 1990s was Cluff Lake, owned and operated by Cogema Resources Inc. Rio Algom's Stanleigh Mine, the last at Elliot Lake in Ontario, closed in mid 1996. The Canadian and Saskatchewan governments have adopted a policy of supporting uranium mining where it can be demonstrated to be environmentally acceptable. In 1991 a Joint Federal-Provincial Environmental Assessment and Review Panel was formed to study the health, safety, environmental and socio-economic impacts of five proposed uranium mining developments. A Federal Panel was formed to examine a sixth proposal. Expansions at the Cluff Lake and Rabbit Lake operations were reviewed and approved in 1993, and came into operation. Four new uranium projects became the focus of attention in the late 1990s as reserves in the older mines became depleted. All are located in northern Saskatchewan. Of these four new mines, three will use a common treatment plant, at McClean Lake. The McClean Lake project opened in mid 1999. It involves four open pits and later will have an underground mine, feeding a new mill, and operated by Cogema. The McArthur River mine operated by Cameco has enormous reserves of very high-grade ore and opened its underground mine at the end of 1999. Remote-control raise boring methods are used for mining, some 600 metres underground. Ore is trucked to the Key Lake mill, 80 km south. The high-grade Cigar Lake mine to be operated by Cameco will also be underground, utilising ground freezing and water jet boring, with remotely-operated equipment. Ore will be trucked 70-80 km for treatment at the Rabbit Lake and McClean Lake mills from about 2005. Ore from Cogema's Midwest underground mine is also likely to be milled at McClean Lake nearby. Thus later in the decade, Cogema's McClean Lake mill will produce some 8000 t/yr, Cameco's Key Lake mill about 7000 t/yr and Rabbit Lake at least 3500 t/yr uranium. Altogether this will be about half of projected world mine production. Canada's further involvement in the nuclear fuel cycle Cameco operates Canada's only uranium refining and conversion facilities, located respectively at Blind River and Port Hope, Ontario. The refinery at Blind River takes uranium oxide concentrate (U3O8) from mines in Canada and abroad and refines it to UO3, an intermediate product. The UO3 is trucked to Port Hope, which has about one quarter of the Western world's uranium hexafluoride (UF6) conversion capacity and provides the only commercial supply of fuel-grade natural (unenriched) uranium dioxide (UO2). The uranium hexafluoride is enriched outside Canada for use in light water reactors, while natural UO2 is used to fabricate fuel bundles for CANDU reactors in Canada and abroad. About 80% of the UO3 from Blind River is converted to UF6, while the remainder is refined to UO2. Two fuel fabrication plants in Ontario process some 1900 tonnes of uranium per year to UO2 fuel pellets, mainly for domestic CANDU reactors. Between 15 and 20% of Canada's uranium production is consumed domestically. Canada's Nuclear Fuel Waste Management Organisation was set up in 2002 to propose means of long-term management of spent fuel and then implement what is decided upon. The main concept proposed so far is burying nuclear waste 500 to 1000 metres deep in the stable rock of the Canadian Shield. This will be below the water table and with the containers packed in bentonite clay. This concept was the subject of detailed scrutiny by the federal Environment Assessment Panel over three years in the 1990s, involving public hearings. The waste may consist of spent fuel bundles or the solidified high-level waste from reprocessing them, sealed in copper or titanium containers. (See also 5.5) Canadian Reactors In 1944, an engineering design team was brought together in Montreal, Quebec, to develop a heavy water moderated nuclear reactor. The National Research Experimental reactor (NRX) was built at Chalk River, Ontario, and started up in 1947. It provided the basis for Canada's development of the very successful CANDU series of power reactors, and served as one of the most valuable research reactors in the world. The CANDU nuclear reactor system (see 3.2 & 4.2) has been developed since the 1950s by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL) and Canadian industry. The key to the success of the system is its simplicity, its use of natural uranium (as UO2) as a fuel, and the ability to refuel without shutting down. The reactors use heavy water under pressure as a coolant, as well as using heavy water as a moderator. The use of heavy water means that an ancillary industry is needed to produce it, corresponding to the rather more capital-intensive enrichment services required by other reactor types. Canada produces all of its heavy water, now from a single D2O production facility. The major commercial utilisation of the CANDU system has been in Ontario, which has benefited from this electricity source since the early 1970s. In Ontario, 19 commercial nuclear reactors at three locations, have produced two thirds of the Province's electricity, though seven of these are now laid up until 2003. Three require new steam generators and one of these is likely to be retired permanently. Single unit CANDU reactors also operate in Quebec and New Brunswick. The total nuclear electricity generated has a value of about C$ 3.7 billion per year and helps Canada minimise emissions from electric power generation. In addition, export sales of 12 CANDU units have been made to South Korea, Romania, India, Pakistan, Argentina and China, along with the engineering expertise to build and operate them. In 1996 total nuclear-related exports from Canada were over $1300 million. The reactors at Darlington, Ontario provide the base design for the new CANDU 9 series of reactors of around 900 MWe. This design supplements the proven CANDU 6 of about 700 MWe, which has been such an export success. The CANDU-9 has flexible fuel requirements ranging from natural uranium through slightly-enriched uranium, recovered uranium from reprocessing spent PWR fuel, mixed oxide (U & Pu) fuel, direct use of spent PWR fuel, to thorium. The Advanced Candu Reactor (ACR) is a more innovative concept, also being developed from the CANDU-6. While retaining the low-pressure heavy water moderator, it incorporates some features of the pressurised water reactor. Adopting light water cooling and a more compact core reduces capital cost. It will run on low-enriched uranium (about 1.5-2.0% U-235) with high burn-up, extending the fuel life by about three times and reducing high-level waste volumes accordingly. Units will be assembled from prefabricated modules, eventually cutting construction time to three years. The Canadian nuclear industry is responsible for providing 25 000 direct jobs and a further 10 000 indirect jobs. It involves over 125 companies in several provinces. A.C.N. 005 503 828 http://www.uic.com.au/nip30.htm |
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