Foreign uranium outlook

Good information is available regarding world uranium resources and supply outside the Communist countries. Resource and production capacity in all categories, i.e., Reasonably Assured, Estimated Additional, and Speculative, is concentrated in a relatively few countries that are likely to dominate the world scene for some time. Australia and Canada are in especially strong positions as they have added substantially to their resource base in recent years and have a number of major undeveloped deposits. South Africa, Namibia, Niger, and Gabon will also continue to be major sources. Planned production capacity could increase world capacity to levels of over 80,000 tons U3O8 per year in the late 1980s compared to the existing capacity of around 40,000 tons. Such levels of production are well above projected demand and hence are not likely to happen that rapidly. Actual production expansions will more closely track growth in demand which will be dependent on achieved nuclear power growth. In the longer term, further expansions will be needed to meet projected demand, and there is uncertainty about the adequacy of world resources to meet demands. Continued study of long-term resources as well as efforts to discover and evaluate deposits will be needed to sustain the assurance of long-term supply