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On the contrary the article you provided did not once mention the words 'economically recoverable'. What you are looking for is the reserves of Uranium in the

On the contrary the article you provided did not once mention the words 'economically recoverable'. What you are looking for is the reserves of Uranium in the world. Reserves, in mining means the amount of ore that can be economically removed from the earth. For those numbers please refer to the link that I listed previously. If the percent of uranium oxide in an ore is less than 0.1% (by weight) then it is not economical to mine.

DabAsteroid 18y ago
Reserves, in mining means the amount of ore that can be economically removed from the earth. No, it doesn't. http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ajuliansimon.com%2Fwritings%2FUltimate_Resource+reserves http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ajuliansimon.com%2Fwrit...
- jmackinn 18y ago
  Julian Simon was a professor business administration, not a mining engineer. Those articles refer to scare tactics presented in terms of resource scarcity by environmental fanatics. He says nothing about the definition of a mineral reserve. But I can help us with that. Reserve definition Reserve definition is undertaken to convert a mineral resource into an ore reserve, which is an economic asset. The process is similar to resource evaluation, except more intensive and technical, aimed at statistically quantifying the grade continuity and mass of ore. Reserve definition also takes into account the milling and extractability characteristics of the ore, and generates bulk samples for metallurgical testwork, involving crushability, floatability and other ore recovery parameters. Reserve definition includes geotechnical assessment and engineering studies of the rocks within and surrounding the deposit to determine the potential instabilities of proposed open pit or underground mining methods. This process may involve drilling diamond core samples to derive structural information on weaknesses within the rock mass such as faults, foliations, joints and shearing. At the end of this process, a feasibility study is published, and the ore deposit may be either deemed uneconomic or economic. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_exploration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_exploration
  - DabAsteroid 18y ago
    For resources to be counted as reserves, they have to be found. If no one bothers finding more resources, the resources that lie in wait are not counted as reserves. Here is some finding-cost data: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf75.html http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf75.html the finding costs of crude oil have averaged around US$ 6/bbl over at least the past three decades. When finding costs of the two fuels are expressed in terms of their contained energy value, oil, at US$ 1050/MJ of energy, is about 300 times more expensive to find than uranium, at US$ 3.4/MJ. Similarly, the proportion of current market prices that finding costs comprise are lower for uranium. Its finding costs make up only 2% of the recent spot price of US$ 30/lb ($78/kgU), while the oil finding costs are 12% of a recent spot price of US$ 50/bbl. By these measures, uranium is a very inexpensive energy source to replenish, as society has accepted far higher energy replacement costs to sustain oil resources. . If those finding costs were considered too high, one would additionally have to hope that no one would be able to find the sea, or that if anyone were able to find the sea, that they would not be able to figure out how to extract uranium from it for, perhaps, only several hundred dollars per kg -- something which in fact has already been done, and which is being improved-upon by current research conducted by Japan and India.
    - jmackinn 18y ago
      Current extraction from sea water runs over 4 times the current spot price for Uranium. It is currently an UNECONOMICAL way to get Uranium. Please reread the original article I linked to regarding the 1000 year supply. It actually deals with undiscovered reserves. In addition to these identified resources, the category of uranium that could be expected to be found based on the geologic characteristics of known resources has grown by 500,000 tonnes to 10.5 million tonnes. The data comes from Uranium 2007: Resources, Production and Demand - often known as the Red Book - published every two years by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). from: http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/ENF_Exploration_drives_uranium_resources_up_17_0206082.html http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/ENF_Exploration_drives_ura...
      - DabAsteroid 18y ago

DabAsteroid 18y ago

Reserves, in mining means the amount of ore that can be economically removed from the earth. No, it doesn't. http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ajuliansimon.com%2Fwritings%2FUltimate_Resource+reserves http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ajuliansimon.com%2Fwrit...

jmackinn 18y ago
Julian Simon was a professor business administration, not a mining engineer. Those articles refer to scare tactics presented in terms of resource scarcity by environmental fanatics. He says nothing about the definition of a mineral reserve. But I can help us with that. Reserve definition Reserve definition is undertaken to convert a mineral resource into an ore reserve, which is an economic asset. The process is similar to resource evaluation, except more intensive and technical, aimed at statistically quantifying the grade continuity and mass of ore. Reserve definition also takes into account the milling and extractability characteristics of the ore, and generates bulk samples for metallurgical testwork, involving crushability, floatability and other ore recovery parameters. Reserve definition includes geotechnical assessment and engineering studies of the rocks within and surrounding the deposit to determine the potential instabilities of proposed open pit or underground mining methods. This process may involve drilling diamond core samples to derive structural information on weaknesses within the rock mass such as faults, foliations, joints and shearing. At the end of this process, a feasibility study is published, and the ore deposit may be either deemed uneconomic or economic. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_exploration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_exploration
- DabAsteroid 18y ago
  For resources to be counted as reserves, they have to be found. If no one bothers finding more resources, the resources that lie in wait are not counted as reserves. Here is some finding-cost data: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf75.html http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf75.html the finding costs of crude oil have averaged around US$ 6/bbl over at least the past three decades. When finding costs of the two fuels are expressed in terms of their contained energy value, oil, at US$ 1050/MJ of energy, is about 300 times more expensive to find than uranium, at US$ 3.4/MJ. Similarly, the proportion of current market prices that finding costs comprise are lower for uranium. Its finding costs make up only 2% of the recent spot price of US$ 30/lb ($78/kgU), while the oil finding costs are 12% of a recent spot price of US$ 50/bbl. By these measures, uranium is a very inexpensive energy source to replenish, as society has accepted far higher energy replacement costs to sustain oil resources. . If those finding costs were considered too high, one would additionally have to hope that no one would be able to find the sea, or that if anyone were able to find the sea, that they would not be able to figure out how to extract uranium from it for, perhaps, only several hundred dollars per kg -- something which in fact has already been done, and which is being improved-upon by current research conducted by Japan and India.
  - jmackinn 18y ago
    Current extraction from sea water runs over 4 times the current spot price for Uranium. It is currently an UNECONOMICAL way to get Uranium. Please reread the original article I linked to regarding the 1000 year supply. It actually deals with undiscovered reserves. In addition to these identified resources, the category of uranium that could be expected to be found based on the geologic characteristics of known resources has grown by 500,000 tonnes to 10.5 million tonnes. The data comes from Uranium 2007: Resources, Production and Demand - often known as the Red Book - published every two years by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). from: http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/ENF_Exploration_drives_uranium_resources_up_17_0206082.html http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/ENF_Exploration_drives_ura...
    - DabAsteroid 18y ago