It counted because we had enough raw uranium to, indeed, separate one bomb's worth of U-235 in time, but more importantly to fuel the natural uranium reactors i

It counted because we had enough raw uranium to, indeed, separate one bomb's worth of U-235 in time, but more importantly to fuel the natural uranium reactors in which we bred plutonium, which got into high gear faster than the former. By comparison, in the link I included is the statement that "To illustrate the uniqueness of Sengier’s stockpile, after the war the MED and the AEC considered ore containing three-tenths of 1 percent as a good find.", which comports with my memory.