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The Tummalapalle uranium mine located in YSR district of Andhra Pradesh would be commissioned by early April.
The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has estimated uranium reserves of the mine at 1.5 lakh tonnes, which are one of the largest in the world.
The DAE Spokesperson, Mr S.K. Malhotra, said that the mine is ready but the uranium processing plants are still under construction, which will take another two months to complete. The mine is a part of the Kadapa basin and has significant reserves of uranium therefore the DAE is concentrating its energies on this area.
Mine development is also being carried out at Lambapur-Peddagattu in Nalgonda district of the State.
Full fledged exploration for new uranium mines is also under way in the Kadapa basin.
Earlier, major thrust was given to the mines around Jaduguda in Jharkhand but over the years, the uranium ore got depleted. The ore reserves will only last another 10 years therefore new ones have to be developed, Mr Malhotra said.
A senior official of Uranium Corporation of India Ltd told Business Line that about 1.1 million tonnes of ore be would be mined a year from Tummalapalle, which after processing would yield 250 tonnes of yellowcake (uranium oxide). This oxide would be further processed and then fed into the nuclear reactor as fuel, the official said.
The global spot market for the yellowcake is ruling at about $100 a kg, therefore the yearly production from the mine can be valued at about $25 million. Rough calculations suggest that from the yellowcake about 8,888 million units of power can be produced, the official said.
The island-city area of Mumbai, which houses the main business district, consumes about 4,300 million units of power a year. So 8,888 million units can supply power to this area for two years.
The official added that about Rs 1,100 crore have been invested for developing the mine.
For producing the yellowcake an ‘alkaline leaching process' has been devised by Uranium Corporation, which would be used for the first time in the mine, the official said.
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