Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Uranium Country Notes

Hungary

Uranium exploration commenced in the early 1950s, with the Mecsek deposit in southern Hungary being discovered in 1954. An underground mine came into production at Mecsek in 1956. Initially the raw ore produced was shipped to the USSR, but from 1963 onwards it passed through a processing plant at Mecsek before being shipped as uranium concentrates.
Mining and milling operations at the Mecsek site were shut down at the end of 1997. Cumulative production of uranium, including a relatively small amount derived from heap leaching, was about 21 000 tonnes. Since 1998, the only production has been of very small quantities (currently about 4 tonnes per year) obtained as a by-product of water treatment activities.

An Australian company, Wildhorse Energy, was granted a uranium exploration licence in January 2007 for its Máriakéménd project in the Pécs region of southern Hungary, in the vicinity of the former Mecsek operation.

Hungary's remaining known conventional resources of uranium, as reported to the IAEA/NEA, are 18 399 tonnes of PR, 75% of which is deemed to be recoverable at less than US$ 130/kgU.