Uranium concentrate production at Caetite, BA, Brazil

The central region of the 'Sao Francisco Craton' has been searched for uranium deposits since 1971. More than a hundred anomalies were found until 1976. Now a days, the uranium province of 'Lagoa Real', has 34 uranium anomalies distributed over a surface area of 1200 Km2 in this region, roughly along three semi-arched lineaments, covering an approximate extension of 30 Km. There are 12 among the 34 anomalies that exhibit important uranium content. There are 7 of these areas that account for geological reserves of, approximately, 94,000 tons of uranium (U3O8) ore (Matos et al., 2003). The uranium province of 'Lagoa Real' is located in south region of Bahia State, at Caetite and Lagoa Real counties. It is considered the most important monometallic province in Brazil. Uranium is economically the only mineral wealth, occurring mainly in the form of oxide, constituting the mineral ore known as uraninite. The uranium mining activities in this region, at Caetit? county has started in 2000. The paper reports further on geological aspects, uranium geological reserves, ore exploitation, milling (milling capacity per year: 400 t U3O8), environmental aspects and Brazilian uranium requirements