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Uranium Mining

Overview

Uranium miners employ several techniques: surface or open-pit mining, underground mining, and in-situ recovery mining, which involves using liquids to recover minerals from underground ore. Uranium also can be a byproduct of other mineral processing operations.

Open-pit mining involves the removal of a great deal of overlying rock—known as burden—by drilling and blasting. A significant amount of waste rock also is removed. Steps are cut into the exposed ore body to facilitate ore removal by large loaders and dump trucks.

Ore mined from open-pit and underground mines travels to a conventional mill, where it is crushed, ground and leached to dissolve the uranium. Most of the ore is barren rock or other minerals that are not dissolved in the process. These solids, also called tailings, are separated from the uranium solution, usually by allowing them to settle out. Solvents or ion exchange processing removes the uranium from the ore. The resulting uranium oxide, or yellowcake, is filtered, dried and packaged.

In-situ recovery mining in the United States involves the injection of carbonated water through specially drilled wells into an ore body several hundred feet underground. The injected solutions penetrate the ore deposits and dissolve the uranium. This process brings the uranium-bearing solution to the surface, where the uranium is extracted.

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