Mongolia expands uranium exploration, mining

Mongolia's Nuclear Energy Authority issued 107 uranium exploration licenses and two exploitation licenses in 2011 as it stepped up efforts to expand the industry, local media reported Friday. The authority also said Mongolia had invested 37.1 billion tugriks (about 27 million U.S. dollars) in uranium exploration in 2011 compared to 25.1 billion tugriks (18 million dollars) in 2010 and 16 billion (11.7 million dollars) in 2009. Most exploration work is being conducted in the country's Dornogobi, Dornod and Sukhbaatar provinces, the report cited specialists as saying. A total of nine uranium deposits had been identified with an estimated uranium reserve of 68,500 tons. The report also said 28 companies had finished research and test work and were preparing to mine. An earlier report said French uranium giant Areva Group had completed field exploration and was extracting uranium in Dornogobi. The company also planned to build uranium processing plants to produce "yellow cake" or end uranium product by 2017. This would be exported to uranium enrichment plants in France and Kazakhstan. Mongolia is rich in uranium. According to estimates in 2008, its reserves rank the 15th in the world.