The Hindu Business Line : Uranium Corp to go ahead with mines development plans

Even as negative public perceptions of uranium mining often create hindrances leading to social and legal problems in new construction sites, the state-owned Uranium Corporation of India Ltd is determined to go ahead with its plan to develop new uranium ore mines and uranium processing plants in different locations of the country. Its operation currently confines only to Jaduguda in Jharkhand.

A large opencast uranium mine at Banduhurang in Singhbhum East district of Jharkhand is under construction with a capacity to produce 2,400 tonnes per day (tpd), while an ore processing plant at Turamdih in the same district with a capacity to process 3,000 tpd is nearing completion and it will be fed by ore from Turamdih and Bandhuhurang mines.

An underground mine at Bagjata in Singhbhum East district with decline and vertical shaft as main entries is under construction. This mine will produce 500 tpd. Another underground mine at Seraikela-Kharswan district of Jharkhand with a capacity of 500 tpd has also been planned. Construction activities will be undertaken soon after obtaining necessary clearances.

The Chairman & Managing Director of Uranium Corporation, Mr Ramendra Gupta, said here that the company was also planning to develop one opencast and three small mines in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh.

The ore will be processed in a common plant to be constructed at Seripally, about 50 km away from the mine site. Moreover, an underground mine and processing plant has also been planned in West Khasi Hills in Meghalaya.

UCIL, with its mandate to mine and process uranium ore has been steadily producing uranium for the last four decades to meet the present requirement of uranium for an installed capacity of 3,310 MWe of nuclear power. With its headquarter at Jaduguda in Jharkhand, the corporation currently operates four underground mines and one ore processing plant in Singhbhum district.

Mr Gupta said that the road to success of the country's three-stage nuclear power programme should begin with the implementation of a programme to ensure availability of natural uranium for pressurised heavy water reactors.

However, he felt that with the opening up of uranium exploration and exploitation to the private sector and favourable geo-political happenings in nuclear energy sector, it was expected that uranium exploitation would get a great boost with the participation of leading uranium mining and processing companies of the world.

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