Set up in 1967, UCIL has since been supplying uranium concentrates to Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) at Hyderabad for conversion into nuclear grade fuel which is used in the country's nuclear power stations.

UCIL operates three underground mines at Jaduguda, Narwapahar and Bhatin, one uranium mill at Jaduguda and one plant each at Rakha and Mosaboni to recover uranium from HCL copper tailings. It also operates a by-product recovery plant and a magnetite recovery plant at Jaduguda.

The total installed capacity of Jaduguda mill can process 2090 tonnes of ores a day. According to J L Bhasin, chairman and managing director of UCIL, the occurrence of uranium-bearing minerals in the Singhbhum thrust belt (STB) was first discovered more than 60 years ago by J A Dunnand E F O Murray. Soon after independence, India decided to prospect and develop uranium resources for generation of nuclear energy.

In 1950, a team of geologists drawn from the Geological Survey of India and the department of atomic energy was entrusted with the job of surveying the entire 160-km-long STB and locating radioactive mineral occurences. The team found several radioactive areas in the STB of which Jaduguda, Bhatin, Nawapahar, Taramidh and Bagjata are a few.

Bhasin said that during the last four decades some of these mineral occurences have become major uranium producing mines.

According to the UCIL chairman, the regional geology of STB has been the subject matter of intense study for many geologists for the past 50 years. The pioneering work in this region was done by Dunn and Dey. They divided the entire area into two broad divisions - north of the thrust belt and south of the thrust belt.

In Jaduguda mine, there are two ore-bodies, foot wall lode (FWL) and hanging wall lode (HWL), bothseparated from each other by a distance of about 60 to 100 metres. The FWL extends over a length of about 800 metres in south-east and north-west directions. The HWL has only 200 to 300 metres of length and is confined to the eastern part of the deposit only. The average width of the lodes is about three to four metres though at certain places the lodes are as thick as 20 to 25 metres.

The FWL is in general better mineralised and contains copper, nickel and molybdenum sulphide in addition to uranium. Both these lodes have an average dip of about 40 to 50 degrees. Ore-body in Jaduguda has been prospected up to a depth of about 750 to 800 metres and further prospecting will continue.

The copper ores of STB contain a very small amount of uranium which can be recovered as by-products. Tailings after the extraction of copper are sent to UCIL plants for recovery of uranium. The uranium content of copper tailings varies from 0.004 to 0.01 per cent.

At the UCIL plants the copper tailings are subjected totabling where uranium mineral concentrates are recovered and then sent to Jaduguda mill for further processing. About 100 tonnes of uranium mineral concentrates are produced a day. Uranium ores of Jaduguda and Bhatin also contain small quantities of sulphide minerals of copper, nickel and molybdenite, which are recovered at present as by-products at the by-product recovery plant located on the premises of the mill.

The combined concentrates of copper and nickel containing 20 per cent cus are sold to HCL, Ghatsila, for smelting and recovery of copper.The sulphide concentrate of molybdenum is converted to ferrous-molybdenite which is used in ordnance factories.

Test work on pilot plant scale is being carried out to recover nickel and copper sulphates after roasting and extracting hydro-metallurgically. The uranium ores of Singhbhum contain about three per cent magnetite which is recovered at a recovery plant installed on the mill premises. Magnetite is separated after the recovery of sulphide minerals anduranium. The magnetite produced contains about 95 per cent magnetics and finds use in coal washeries.