China discovers new uranium reserve

China has discovered a super-large uranium ore deposit, which will significantly increase the country's uranium reserves and enhance the security of the resource supply, China Geological Survey announced on Friday.

Since 2021, China has stepped up uranium exploration nationwide, discovering a super-large uranium ore deposit in the Jingchuan area of the Ordos Basin. The basin is located in the central-western region of China and is rich in natural gas, coalbed methane, coal and petroleum resources, according to the CGS, an institution of the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The super-large uranium ore deposit, discovered in the aeolian sandstone of the basin, is the world's first uranium deposit found in such a geological setting, adding a new type of uranium ore to the known classifications, the CGS said.

It added that aeolian sandstone is widely distributed in China, including about 200,000 square kilometers in the Ordos Basin and many areas in Tarim Basin and Junggar Basin in northwestern China and Songliao Basin in northeastern China.

Jin Ruoshi, chief scientist on uranium at the CGS, said that in many basins in China, where there is oil and coal underground, there may be aeolian sandstone formations above, indicating the potential for finding new deposits, possibly leading to the discovery of large or even super-large uranium deposits for China.

The new type of uranium deposits, like conventional sandstone-hosted uranium deposits, has advantages such as low mining costs, low pollution and large deposit scales, Jin said.

The discovery also greatly expands the uranium ore exploration scope for the world, since aeolian sandstone-hosted uranium deposits have not been extensively mined worldwide, Jin added.

According to Jin, China's exploration of sandstone-hosted uranium deposits began relatively late, with technology being introduced from the former Soviet Union in the late 1980s.

With continuously innovative exploration methods and the extensive historical data accumulated from coal and oil exploration, researchers have re-evaluated and revitalized these long-dormant records to search for sandstone-hosted uranium deposits, laying the foundation for the recent discovery of aeolian sandstone-hosted uranium deposits, he said.

lipeixuan@chinadaily.com.cn