Today's Uranium Milling Costs

The recent surge in demand for uranium in the US, accompanied by a significant increase in price, has stimulated the search for and development of lower grade ore bodies. At the mill, this translates into much larger throughputs and-compounded by many recently enacted environmental considerations-has made the cost of milling a critical factor in today's uranium production economics. The three conventional milling methods employed in the extraction of uranium ores are reviewed in the following sections.