Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) will soon start a uranium mining and processing plant project at the Kanampalle reserves, in the southern Indian province of Andhra Pradesh.
The project will be completed under the company’s current five-year plan, running to 2017.
The new project, which promi- ses to be among the 20 largest uranium reserves in the world, would have an initial capacity of 6 000 t/d, a company official said.
The Kanampalle reserves are close to UCIL’s Tummalapalle uranium reserves, where the company commissioned a 3 000 t/d processing plant last year. The mining project at Tummalapalle was started with initial ore reserves of 14 000 t but has now increased to 60 000 t, and this will be progressively increased with new discoveries.
Commensurately, the processing mill, which has the capacity to handle 3 000 t/d, is being increased to 6 000 t/d and is scheduled for completion this year.
The company has sought $1-billion in funding support from government to increase the capacities of existing mining projects and construct green- field extraction and processing units.
Meanwhile, following clearance from the Indian government, UCIL will soon start on floating a joint venture with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), which spearheads the country’s nuclear power generation plants to acquire uranium assets overseas.
UCIL has the sole mandate to supply uranium to nuclear reactors owned and operated by NPCIL, which is, like UCIL, under the control of the Depart- ment of Atomic Energy.
India produces 4 680 MW of nuclear power from 19 atomic power plants and targets pro- ducing 32 000 MW by 2032.