Why Australia has so much uranium

Uranium mining in Australia began in 1954 at Rum Jungle in the Northern Territory and Radium Hill in South Australia. The first mining of uranium for electricity generation in nuclear reactors began in 1976, at Mary Kathleen in Queensland. Australia is now the world's second largest producer. In 2004, Canada accounted for 29% of world production, followed by Australia with approximately 22%. Australia's output came from three mines: Ranger, which produced 5138 tonnes of U3O8 (11% of world production), Olympic Dam (4370 t, 9%) and Beverley (1084 t, 2%). Exports have increased steadily to a record level of 9648 tonnes of U3O8 in 2004, valued at A$411 million. Australia's uranium sector is based on world-leading resources and high and increasing annual output. Our resources are generally amenable to low-cost production with minimal long-term environmental and social impacts. Around 85 known uranium deposits, varying in size from small to very large, are scattered across the Australian continent (McKay & Miezitis 2001). After five decades of uranium mining, Australia still has the world's largest uranium resources recoverable at low-cost (less than US$40/kg U, or US$15/lb U3O8). In April 2005, these remaining low-cost resources amounted to 826 650 t U3O8 (= 701 000 t U), or roughly 40% of world resources in this category. Australia's total remaining identified resources in all cost categories amount to 1 347 900 t U3O8.

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