India to commission new uranium mine, processing plant soon

New Delhi: India will commission a new uranium mine and a processing plant in the next few weeks which would provide fuel to its nuclear power plants, a top official said. “The Mouldih mine in Jharkhand is almost ready and would be commissioned in a few weeks time,” Diwakar Acharya, Chairman and Managing Director of the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) said. He said a processing plant for the Tummalapalle uranium mine is also expected to start process the ore extracted from the region. [caption id=“attachment_227716” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) is betting heavily on the Tummalapalle uranium deposits. Reuters”]  [/caption] According to plans, the Mouldih mine, when operational, is expected to deliver uranium ore up to 500 tonnes per day. This ore will be processed at the Turamdih mill, which has the capacity to process 3,000 tonnes of uranium ore per day, Acharya said. He said the capacity of the Turamdih mill was also being enhanced to 4,500 tonnes per day. “We are in the process of getting regulatory clearances,” Acharya said. The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) is betting heavily on the Tummalapalle uranium deposits, which Acharya said were “mind boggling”. “We started the Tummalapalle mine with 14,000 tonnes of deposits now it has gone up to 60,000 tonnes. This may go up as explorations are still on with encouraging results,” he said. The Tummalapalle mill will also have a capacity of processing 3,000 tonnes of ore per day which would be progressively enhanced to 6,000 tonnes per day. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd is currently building four 700 MW reactors – two in Rawatbhata in Rajasthan and two in Kakrapar in Gujarat. It plans to construct 10 more such 700 MW reactors over the next 10 years. At present, India operates 20 nuclear power plants at six sites across the country which have the capacity to generate 4780 MW of electricity. Acharya said the DAE was in the process of getting environment clearances for the Gogi mine in Yadgir district in north Karnataka which has a small but high-grade deposit. “These deposits can be extracted using a mobile plant, he said. The UCIL has mining operations at Bagjata, Jaduguda, Bhatin, Narwapahar, Turamdih underground mines and Banduhurang opencast mines. It also runs two processing plants at Jaduguda and Turamdih. PTI