Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Uranium Country Notes

China

More than 50 years of exploration for uranium have resulted in the discovery of deposits in various parts of the country. The major resources are in Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces in the south-east, in Liaoning province to the northeast of Beijing and in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of north-western China. In April 2007, it was announced that future uranium exploration would focus on the Yili Basin in Xinjiang and the Ordoo Basin in Inner Mongolia.

Total Identified Resources in ten locations are stated to be 85 000 tonnes (in situ), an increase of 8 000 tU over the level reported for the 2003 Red Book, but with no breakdown by cost category. For the 2005 edition of the Red Book, recoverable RAR at less than US$ 80/kgU have been estimated as 38 019 tonnes and IR in the same cost bracket as 21 704 tonnes. Undiscovered resources have been retained at the 2003 levels of 3 600 tonnes of PR and
4 100 tonnes of SR.

There are five operational production centres, with an aggregate nominal capacity of 840 tU/yr. Construction of a new production centre at Fuzhou is in hand. China, the only producing country in East Asia, does not report official production figures. Production is estimated to have been 730 tU in 2004 and 750 tU in 2005, primarily from underground mining. Given its nuclear power expansion plans and, in order to avoid overdependence on foreign sources of uranium, there are determined efforts under way for further exploration, the development of mines and the improvement of mine productivity.