Where are global uranium ore deposits found?

Uranium ore deposits are widespread across all continents, with the largest concentrations located in Australia, Kazakhstan, and Canada. While uranium is a relatively common element in the Earth's crust, finding commercially viable, high-grade concentrations is challenging. The International Atomic Energy Agency classifies these deposits into 15 distinct categories based on their host rocks, mineralogy, and structural settings, and maintains databases regarding the nuclear fuel cycle.

What we know

• Uranium ore deposits are distributed globally across all continents, with the largest deposits found in Australia, Kazakhstan, and Canada. [3]
• High-grade uranium deposits are currently found exclusively in the Athabasca Basin region of Canada. [3]
• The International Atomic Energy Agency developed the most widely used classification scheme for uranium deposits, subdividing them into 15 categories, and maintains databases related to the nuclear fuel cycle through systems like iNFCIS. [2, 3]
• Uranium is a fairly common element in the Earth's crust, being 40 times more common than silver and 500 times more common than gold. [3]

Where to go next

• how it workedHow is uranium extracted from ore deposits?
• how we knowWhat is the Integrated Nuclear Fuel Cycle Information System?
• the bigger pictureWhat are the chemical properties of uranium?
• a case in pointWhich countries are the top producers of uranium today?
• compared withHow do uranium-235 and uranium-238 differ in nuclear reactors?
• an unexpected connectionHow does uranium help scientists date the age of the Earth?The radioactive decay of uranium isotopes, which are commercially mined for nuclear fuel, has half-lives ranging up to billions of years, making them useful for dating geological formations and the Earth itself.

Sources

• [1]Integrated Nuclear Fuel Cycle Information System (Wikidata Q6042913) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Integrated Nuclear Fuel Cycle Information System · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Uranium ore · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Uranium mining · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Uranium · CC BY-SA 4.0