OCR Text |
Show AEC Lists Reserves Of Uranium Ore Estimates from the Atomic Energ Commission Com-mission indicate that as of January 1. 1973. domestic do-mestic uranium ore reserves re-serves receoverable at a cost of S or less per pound ( I 3i S were 273.(1110 tons of U3()8 contained in 128 million tons fif ore with an average ave-rage grade of .21 per cent U308. The principal princi-pal use for this ore is as the raw material for nuclear power reactor fuel. New reserves developed devel-oped in 1h72 contained an estimated 13.901) tons f l'3 )S. but during the ear about 13.900 tons of uranium concentrate were mined and shipped to mill-: therefore, there was essential no change in ss reserves from the previous year. New Mexico and Wyoming Wyo-ming continue to be the leading uranium states with a combined total of 85 per cent of the nation's na-tion's uraniun reserves. re-serves. Utah ranks fifth with approximately 2.-500.000 2.-500.000 tons of ore.-which ore.-which is estimated to contain 8.000 tons of U3( S.. Companies active in the uranium industry reported surface exploration ex-ploration and development develop-ment drilling totaling 15.4 million feet during 1H72. including 11.8 million mil-lion feet of exploration drilling and 3.6 million feet of development drilling. The total footage foot-age drilled was slightly less than the 15.5 million feet drilled in 1971. Exploration Ex-ploration drilling involves in-volves the search for new deposit- and determination deter-mination whether a discover dis-cover is commercial: development drilling i-clone i-clone subsequently to determine de-termine the size, configuration, con-figuration, and grade of the deposit-. Underground Under-ground drilling is done primarih for information informa-tion needed in the course of mining. |