Uranium and Thorium distribution over the world and India

Uranium and Thorium are the main atomic minerals.Uranium deposits occur in Singhbhum and Hazaribagh districts of Jharkhand, Gaya district of Bihar, and in the sedimentary rocks in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

But the largest source of uranium comprise the monazite sands that occur on east and west coasts and in some places in Bihar. But the largest concentration of monazite sand is on the Kerala coast.

Over 15,200 tonnes of uranium is estimated to be contained in monazite.Some uranium is found in the copper mines of Udaipur in Rajasthan.India produces about 2 per cent of world’s uranium. The total reserves of uranium are estimated at 30,480 tonnes.Thorium is also derived from monozite. The known reserves of thorium in India are estimated to be between 457,000 and 508,000 tonnes. Kerala, Jharkhand, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan are the main producers. 

Uranium is a silvery-gray metallic radioactive chemical element. It is only naturally formed in supernova explosions.Uranium and thorium are the main elements contributing to natural terrestrial radioactivity. Uranium has the chemical symbol U and atomic number 92.Uranium isotopes in natural uranium are 238U (99.27%) and 235U (0.72%).All uranium isotopes are radioactive and fissionable. But only 235U is fissile.Traces of Uranium are found everywhere. Commercial extraction is possible only in locations where the proportion of Uranium is adequate. There are very few such locations.
Largest viable deposits are found in Australia, Kazakhstan, and Canada.

Olympic Dam and the Ranger mine in Southern Australia are important mines in Australia.High-grade deposits are only found in the Athabasca Basin region of Canada.Cigar Lake, McArthur River basin in Canada are other important uranium mining sites.
The Chu-Sarysu basin in central Kazakhstan alone accounts for over half of the country’s known uranium resources.
India has no significant reserves of Uranium. All needs are met through imports.India imports thousands of tonnes of uranium from Russia, Kazakhstan, France, and India is trying hard to import uranium from Australia and Canada. There are some concerns regarding nuclear proliferation and other related issues which India is trying to sort out.Some quality reserves were recently discovered in parts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana between Seshachalam forest and Sresailam [Southern edge of Andhra to Southern edge of Telangana.

Thorium is a chemical element with symbol Th and atomic number 90.It is one of only two significantly radioactive elements that still occur naturally in large quantities [other being uranium].Thorium metal is silvery and tarnishes black when exposed to air.Thorium is weakly radioactive with all its known isotopes are unstable, with the seven naturally occurring ones (thorium-227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, and 234).Thorium-232 is the most stable isotope of thorium and accounts for nearly all natural thorium, with the other five natural isotopes occurring only in traces.Thorium is estimated to be about three to four times more abundant than uranium in the Earth’s crust, and is chiefly refined from monazite sands [Monazite contains 2.5% thorium] and Monazite is a widely scattered on the Kerala Coast.Thorium is predicted to be able to replace uranium as nuclear fuel in nuclear reactors.

For India, it offers the added benefit that it can enter the export market and India has the largest reserves of thorium.

Advancing the deployment of thorium reactors by four to six decades via a plutonium market might be the most effective step towards curtailing carbon emissions.
Thorium is several times more abundant in Earth’s crust than all isotopes of uranium combined and thorium-232 is several hundred times more abundant than uranium-235.

United States, Australia, and India have particularly large reserves of thorium.India and Australia are believed to possess more than half of world’s thorium reserves.