Uranium was first mined during 1871 in Central City Mining District near Denver, Colorado western United States. After World War 2, international demand for uranium rose strongly, mainly driven by a number of worldwide atomic weapons programmes.

A significant use of uranium mining is as fuel for nuclear power stations. Known uranium ore resources are estimated to produce nuclear fuel for approximately 85 years; this projection is based on the figures for 2004 nuclear electricity generation.

Since 1990 international uranium requirements have exceeded uranium production. World uranium requirements are expected to increase, peaking at over 200 million pounds of yellowcake by next decade. Uranium prices reached a low of US$7/pound in 2001, but since then have increased strongly. In April 2007 the the spot market price of uranium rose to US$113/pound; the highest price in 25 years, and currently the price is rising strongly. Higher prices have resulted in new uranium exploration and mining, which also involved reopening of old uranium mines.

Uranium Mining Worldwide

Uranium mining involves extraction of uranium ore from the ground. Mining of uranium is volume intensive since uranium ore is present at mostly low concentrations.

Due to its rarity, uranium exploration and mining is undertaken in a few countries. The main international uranium producers are Canada (28%) and Australia (23%). Other significant uranium mining countries are Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Niger, South Africa, Namibia, and the USA.

United States of America has the fourth largest uranium deposits in the world, after Australia, Canada, and Kazakhstan. Mining of uranium in the USA declined substantially during the 1980s, but has revived since 2001 due to higher uranium prices. Increasing uranium prices have generated interest in uranium mining in Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Texas and Utah. The states with the largest known uranium reserves are in the order of Wyoming, New Mexico and Colorado.

Uranium Exploration & Mining United States Of America

In the United States of America, uranium ore was first discovered in gold mines near Central City, Colorado. Regular mining of uranium ore began in 1898 with mining of carnotite bearing sandstones of the Colorado Plateau in Utah and Colorado, for their vanadium content. By 1913, the Colorado Plateau was supplying around half the world's supply of radium.

In the last century USA was the world's biggest uranium producer. Grants Uranium District in New Mexico was the largest United States uranium producer. The Gas Hills Uranium District, was the second largest uranium producer. Mining of uranium declined sharply after 1923, when competition from the Belgian Congo of radium and from Peru of vanadium made the Colorado Plateau uranium ores comparatively expensive.

Uranium mining revived in the 1930s with higher prices for vanadium. American uranium ores were in very high demand by the atomic bomb, Manhattan Project, during World War 2. The late 1940s and early 1950s saw a significant increase in uranium mining in western USA. From 1953 until 1980 the United States of America was the world's leading uranium producer when the annual USA production peaked at 16,810 tonnes. Until the early 1980s, there were active uranium mines in Arizona, Colorado, South Dakota, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Wyoming and Washington.

Most uranium ore in the United States comes from deposits in sandstone, which tend to be of lower grade than those of Australia and Canada. Because of the lower grade, many uranium deposits in the United States became uneconomic when the price of uranium declined sharply in the 1980s. Annual production reached a low of 779 tonnes of uranium oxide in 2003, but then more than doubled in three years to 1672 tonnes in 2006, from 10 mines.

Uranium Mines Nevada: Uranium Mining & Exploration USA

The uranium deposit of Apex mine in Lander County, three miles south of Austin, Nevada, was explored in 1953. The mine produced 45 tonnes of uranium from 1954 until 1966. Uranium deposit occurs as autunite and meta-autunite in fractured Cambrian quartzite and argillite, adjacent to Jurassic quartz monzonite. The McDermitt Caldera, in Humboldt County, was an area of intensive uranium exploration and mining during the late 1970s.

On the slopes of Cabin Rock, situated high up in the Sierra Nevada, near the ghost town of Marietta, in Mineral County Nevada,high grade uranium deposits have recently been discovered which will once again lead to intensive uranium exploration and mining in Nevada.