Uranium resources of the world with a market economy

The known uranium resources of the world with a market economy amount altogether to a little over 5 Mt of uranium at production costs of under 130 S/kg U, but at present only the ores with production costs of less than 80 S/kg U are workable, and the resources of this quality are limited to 3.3 Mt. All known uraniferous provinces are linked with the Precambrian, except the one of Central and West Europe, where it is linked with the central part of the Hercynian orogenesis. This applies in particular to France, where the uranium deposits are linked with granites or with Permian or Palaeozoic overburdens of the Hercynian bed rock. The French known resources total 121 000 t U, but merely 88 000 t U have production costs of under 80 S/kg U. The world has already produced about 650 000 t U from the beginning (35 000 t U in France) and the 1984 production was some 35 000 t U (3 100 t U in France). The production capacity could be 70 000 t U by the year of 1990 (with France achieving 4 000 t U). There would be in theory no crucial problem of meeting the global requirements before the year of 2010. Beyond this date, the capacities based on the not yet discovered resources would be able to relieve the situation. Medium-term difficulties in the supply are only expected in cases of large consumer countries not coinciding with producer countries (outside the USA)