Uzbekistan Plans to Double Uranium Production by 2030

Recently, Uzbekistan has clarified its uranium industry expansion plan, aiming to increase annual uranium production to 15,000 tonnes by 2030 through developing mineral deposits, upgrading production facilities, and promoting alternative processes—double the planned scale of 7,500 tonnes this year—and to raise proven reserves to 200,000 tonnes. The state-owned uranium mining enterprise Navoiyuran will undertake the related production and resource development tasks, promoting simultaneous growth in mineral resource reserves and mining capacity.

The expansion work will proceed from exploration, drilling, and surface processing facilities. This year's arrangements include expanding the scale of geological exploration and process drilling, developing production infrastructure, commissioning additional adsorption units, and creating 250 jobs. These measures will connect the links of resource continuation, mining area construction, and uranium recovery and processing, providing supporting backup for the commissioning of new production facilities and subsequent production increases.

Chemical reagent supply is also an important component of the production increase plan. Uzbekistan will strengthen supply coordination among domestic industrial enterprises, expand the supply of reagents required for uranium ore production, and simultaneously increase the proportion of alternative production technologies applied. By 2030, the use of alternative sulfuric acid reagents is planned to reach 40%, which, together with the construction of new facilities, will constitute the implementation path for the expansion of the uranium industry.president.uz

Uzbekistan's uranium ore production mainly adopts in-situ recovery technology, injecting leach solution into the ore layer through well patterns, then recovering and processing the uranium-bearing solution. Navoiyuran's Qizilkok deposit started commercial production of natural uranium earlier this year, with a planned annual capacity of 1,200 tonnes and an expected mine life of 15 years, using in-situ leaching technology involving oxygen. The development of new mines and the upgrading of the existing production system will jointly serve the country's medium- and long-term expansion plan for the uranium industry.World Nuclear News