US uranium production dropped 40% in 2018 to lowest level since 1950: EIA

摘要

US uranium production in 2018 totaled 1.466 million lb U3O8 in 2018, 40% less than a year earlier and the lowest US production seen in almost seven decades, the US Energy Information Administration said February 6 in its domestic uranium production quarterly report. A decline in production since 2014 has come during an ongoing decline in uranium prices that has made it less and less profitable for US companies to produce the material, industry sources have said. Production in 2018 was well below the 2.44 million lb produced a year earlier. Indeed, domestic uranium production in 2018 was the lowest since 1950, when 920,000 lb were produced, according to EIA data. EIA said the annual US uranium production total included material produced at Energy Fuel’s White Mesa Mill from “alternate feed” at the Utah facility. Energy Fuels said in a September 30 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it expected “to recover 320,000 to 360,000 pounds of U3O8 at the White Mesa Mill” during 2018 by processing of water in the mill’s impoundment pond and uranium tailings, material left over from previous uranium recovery efforts.