Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) is expecting to start commercial production from the first phase of the Rs 1,100-crore uranium mining and processing facility at Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh by January 2012.

Trial production of the 3000-tonne-a-day (tpd) project will begin in October.

“We have approached the Ministry of Environment And Forests (MoEF) for due clearance to commission the 1,500-tpd second phase of the project at an estimated Rs 800 crore in the Twelfth Plan Period (2012-17). Plans are also afoot to start commissioning of the third and the largest phase of the project during the next Plan period,” the director technical, Mr D. Acharya, told newspersons here today. On completion of the three phases, the capacity of the project will reach 9500 tpd.

Mr Acharya will be the Chairman of the company from August 1.

Though the official estimates suggest that the Cuddapah reserves have nearly 49,000 tonnes of uranium ore, company official said that that the latest explorations have indicated that the reserve may be three times higher.

According to Chairman and Managing Director, Mr R. Gupta, the company has approached the Planning Commission for provisioning of Rs 4,500 crore for capital expenditure during the Twelfth Plan period. “We are expecting to get Rs 2,000 crore,” he added.

Mr Gupta will be retiring this month.

Later Mr Acharya said that apart from the Andhra Pradesh project, the company is looking forward to commission the mining and processing unit at Karnataka during the next Plan period. The Rs 550-crore project is estimated to produce 500 tpd.

UCIL has struck a small yet rich uranium deposit at Gogi in Yadgir district of Karnataka. “It's a smaller project but of extremely good quality resource,” a company official pointed out.

On the identified deposits in Meghalaya, Mr Acharya said the company has no imminent development plan there. “We are now focussed on developing the deposits in Andhra Pradesh (Cuddapah), which is set to become India's largest uranium find so far,” he added.

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