OCR Text |
Show Mills Don't Keep Up With Growing Uranium Piles Expansion of uranium ore processing mills on the Colorado Plateau has been unable to keep pace with the terrific rate of discovery and, to date, rock is literally piling up at existing mills. Efforts expended by the Atomic Energy Commission to expand capacity is reflected in the experience ot E. G. Crabtree, deputy manager cf the Grand Junction AEC office, who is working overtime with potential operators, and on one occasion was carrying on negotiations with three parties almost simultaneously. Despite the expansion of mill capacity, planned or underway, if discoveries continue to be made at the present rate, ore will continue to swamp the mills, a condition not without its comforts. Current pressure for additional mills is attracting many competent firms to the Colorado Plateau, but not everyone may build a mill. There is no point in building a mill if the concentrates cannot be sold, so as the only market for the concentrates, the AEC effectively decides who will build a mill and where. Considered first by the AEC is the ore supply, and it insists that a supply for the proposed plant be tied up securely for five years. Such a requirement safeguards companies that invested money in new plants at the invitation of the AEC when mills were even more sorely needed, by deterring cutthroat bidding for ores. The AEC encourages potential mill operators to think in terms of a 200-ton per day mill as the minimum practical size, although this is by no means a limit merely advice based on experience. What it means to the operator is that half of the required five years' reserve for a 200-ton mill amounts to about 180,000 tons of ore in the ground. The AEC also Insists that prospective mill operators demonstrate their technical knowledge. Millers may use any process they desire in the proposed plant to produce a suitable uranium concentrate, but U308 recovery and costs must be In line with experience at existing mills and in AEC pilot plants. Processes developed by the AEC or its contractors can be made available. Then the prospective mill operator must submit a firm proposal giving details on cost ot plant, cost of operation, and metallurgical data. All this may sound like red tape to the average reader, but these are figures that any mill man would put together anyhow. Costs of erecting uranium mills In terms of unit capacities are not available, but uranium mills are said to come higher than comparable plants treating other minerals. A good guess would be $10,-000 to $15,000 per ton per day. The final step is negotiation of a contract which calls for the AEC to purchase concentrates for a given period, usually five years, at a fixed price. The price is dependent mainly on operating costs. Here the AEC treads the narrow path of seeing to it that the taxpayers' dollars buy as much U308 as possible, while ensuring that the mill man gets a fair return on his investment. What is a fair return? This figure is never revealed, but an unofficial estimate places it between 10 per cent and 15 per cent. |