Uranium deposits of the world. Peoples Republic of China/ Месторождения урана в мире. Китай

Uranium deposits are known from fi ve uranium provinces and some separate areas (>Fig. 1.1, and discussed below) but no complete uranium inventory of China is published since uranium resources are a state secret. Available information on resources is scanty, incomplete, and burdened with discrepancies. It is unclear whether reported fi gures document original resources or the resource status at a specifi c mining stage. Th erefore, data on resources should to be treated with caution. Taking this into account, available information suggests the following general picture of China’s present resource situation (status 2002).

OECD-NEA/IAEA (2005) reports 85 000 t U (RAR and EAR-I) remaining resources. Resource fi gures are not classifi ed by production costs hence, the resource fraction, which might be exploitable under any particular set of market economic conditions remains an open question. Independent of deposits type, almost two thirds of China’s uranium resources are of low to medium grade (about 0.05–0.2% U) and small tonnage, on the order of some hundreds to a few thousands tonnes of uranium, and rarely more. A few districts, however, may contain in excess of ten thousand tonnes of uranium as shown in >Table 1.1. This situation is reflected by adistribution of deposit sizes in reference to the national resource quantity reported by Wang Jian and Dai Yuan Ning (1993). 31% of Chinas resources are in deposits containing less than 1 000 t U and 30% in deposits of 1 000–3 000 t U. Applying a grade attribution, 51.5% of the national resources are contained in ore grading from 0.1 to 0.2% U and 31.1% in ore with less than 0.1% U. <...>