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Survey of Energy Resources Interim Update 2009

Part I: Uranium update

The data and other information summarised in this chapter have been very largely drawn from Uranium 2007: Resources, Production and Demand (the Red Book), a joint report of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), published in 2008.

Uranium resources and reserves, like those of other energy minerals, are subject to changes over the course of time, due to new discoveries, the re-evaluation of known deposits, technological developments, depletion through production, and other factors. The latest assessments, referenced above, relate to the situation as at 1 January 2007 and are compared in this review with the 1 January 2005 estimates discussed in the 2007 SER.

The principal changes in uranium reserves are summarised in Table 6.1 and discussed in the Country Notes below. Ten countries account for most of the 41.6 thousand tonnes U increase in Reasonably Assured Resources (RAR), taken as broadly equivalent to proved reserves. The major increases in tonnage occurred in Ukraine, Niger and the Russian Federation, whilst Kazakhstan's RAR decreased appreciably. As is frequently observed in the fossil fuels, shifts in reserve levels are often due to movements between categories (e.g. some Inferred Resources reclassified as RAR, and vice versa).

The latest Red Book assessments of RAR are shown in Table 6.1 and 2007 uranium production in Table 6.2.

Country Notes >