Where is uranium ore mined?
Canada, Australia and Kazakhstan are the leading producers of uranium ore. Most uranium is mined from alluvial deposits, where it has been removed from its parent rock far upstream, and deposited in an area where a river’s energy fell to the point that it could no longer be carried. Uranium is widely distributed throughout the crust, but rarely occurs in emplaced deposits within a solid rock, just because that’s the nature of the beast. So sandstones and other sedimentary rock (or even in the form of unconsolidated sediments) are the best places to look. The United States produces only about 2.5% of the world supply, but we also keep most of it for ourselves, with the remainder of our supply coming from Canada.
