L. Fituni, I. Abramova Resource Potential of Africa and Russia's ...

duce the gap between the raw material requirements of the nuclear
power industry and their supply; however, the natural uranium
shortage in the market will persist. 15
In the last decade, the burgeoning nuclear power industry has
given rise to a steady increase in world uranium consumption; in
2005 it reached 69 thousand tons with its production being 40 thousand
tons only. A shortage of about 30 thousand tons is covered by
stock resources. Russia faces similar problems as other countries all
over the world: uranium demand considerably exceeding its production;
a rapid depletion of natural uranium stocks that are enough for
less than 10–15 years, and lack of sufficient geological reserves
prepared for commercial development. In this connection the RF
Government made a decision to substantially facilitate the development
of the nuclear power industry and accelerate the development
of its mineral resource base.
At present, Russia’s total explored uranium reserves of
1+2 categories are 656 thousand tons with the lowest 2 category
dominating (67.7%). However, the quality of the reserves
leaves much to be desired because of a low uranium grade of ore
and insufficient infrastructures in ore districts. Development of
about 600 thousand tons of the reserves may be considered practicable
in the near future. Besides, there are expected uranium resources,
which are also considerable and are estimated at about 830 thousand
tons under the most reliable 1+2 categories.
In Russia, the region of Eastern Siberia and the Far East stands
out for the total mineral resource potential; it accounts for 93% of
explored uranium reserves and 56% of total uranium expected resources.
A number of districts concentrating main uranium reserves
and resources are located just within this region.
The Streltsovsky district, Chita Oblast, contains 15 U-Mo deposits.
They are mined by the Priargunsky Production Mining/Chemical
Association. Total uranium reserves of the district
are 22% of its total reserves in the Russian Federation. The Vitim
district, Republic of Buryatia, unites 8 uranium deposits in erosional
paleovalleys. The district with reserves accounting for 8%
of Russia’s total uranium reserves is developed by Khiagda OJSC.
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