‘No tunnel, no waste’: China’s Inner Mongolia uranium mine signals nuclear leap
China has made a breakthrough in uranium mining and processing by unlocking complex sandstone deposits once seen as too challenging to develop, as Beijing ramps up efforts towards a green transition and energy security.
The country’s largest natural uranium project had yielded its first barrel, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) announced on Saturday.
The “National No 1 Uranium” demonstration project was launched a year ago in the Ordos basin of northern Inner Mongolia, home to China’s largest natural uranium deposits.
State news agency Xinhua said the successful mining marked a “green, safe, intelligent and efficient” approach that would boost China’s competitiveness in the natural uranium sector.
It also signifies a shift in China’s uranium production centre, from central Jiangxi province to the north.
While uranium mining in China has traditionally focused on volcanic and granite deposits around Lean in Jiangxi province, sandstone-type uranium deposits have been uncovered over the past two decades in northern China, particularly Inner Mongolia.
However, technical restrictions meant these deposits were considered as “dull mines” without economic potential. Advanced in situ leaching technology has now proved capable of overcoming those challenges.
Su Xuebing, chief engineer of China National Uranium Co, a CNNC subsidiary, hailed the feat by the No 1 mine as “a systematic technological leap” likely to reshape the country’s uranium mining and processing.
It has also set a record for construction speed, having been completed just one year after breaking ground, Xinhua reported on Saturday.
China announced 10 major uranium discoveries in 2023, with estimated resources exceeding 2.8 million tonnes. Six of those sites are in Inner Mongolia.
The deposits in Jiangxi, while richer, are hosted in granite, meaning they must be mined first and then processed.
On the other hand, the uranium content in sandstone deposits tends to be lower and more dispersed, making extraction less economically attractive with older technology. The porosity of sandstone also makes mining and ore recovery challenging.
In situ leaching, as used successfully in the Inner Mongolia project, “is akin to an intravenous drip”, according to Su.
“A solution is injected into an underground ore bed via wells, dissolving uranium directly. The uranium-rich solution is then pumped to the surface for processing,” he told Xinhua.
Traditional methods like acid or alkali leaching had a significant environmental impact. But the new process using an aqueous carbon dioxide-oxygen solution to dissolve uranium minerals in the underground ore minimised harm, Su said.
“No tunnelling, no ecological damage, and no radioactive waste discharge.”
China is the second country after the United States to master this in situ leaching technology, which can effectively triple accessible uranium resources.
The demonstration uranium project will also use automation, remote control, and big data for smart operations and precise mining.
According to CNNC, the technologies used in the project will be rapidly scaled across uranium development in the northern basins to support the creation of more large-scale uranium mining bases.
China has sped up the building of nuclear reactors to support its green goals and add more reliable energy sources alongside wind and solar, which can be affected by the weather.
It aims to triple its nuclear power capacity to 200 gigawatts by 2040, or more than twice the current capacity of the US, according to industrial reports.
As of the end of last year, China had 26 nuclear power units under construction, with 18 more in the pipeline. All this involves a rising demand for natural uranium.
According to academician Ye Qizhen of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, domestic demand for natural uranium “will exceed half of current global production” in the next 15 years.
“China will become a leading consumer of uranium resources” by then, he told a forum hosted by the state-backed Chinese Nuclear Society in March.