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Nuclear Fuel Resources
Published in Kenneth D. Kok, Nuclear Engineering Handbook, 2016
The major primary ore mineral is uraninite (basically UO2) or pitchblende (U2O5.UO3, better known as U3O8), though a range of other uranium minerals are found in particular deposits. These include carnotite (uranium potassium vanadate), the davidite–brannerite–absite-type uranium titanates, and the euxenite–fergusonite–samarskite group (niobates of uranium and rare earths).
Clean metallurgy and technical progress of light rare earth minerals
Published in Canadian Metallurgical Quarterly, 2023
Qiao Shule, Bian Xue, Cui Jianguo, Cen Peng, Wu Wenyuan
More than 250 types of rare earth minerals have been discovered in the world, but only 10 types of industrial minerals can be used to extract rare earth elements, including parisite, bastnaesite, monazite, euxenite, gadolinite, yttroparisite, xenotime, fergusonite [14]. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), global reserves of rare earth ores are 120 million tonnes in 2021, and the reserves of China are 36.7%, the US 1.5%, Russia 17.5%, Brazil 17.5% and Vietnam 18.3%. The global rare earth production is 280,000 tonnes in 2021, and China accounts for 60%, USA 15.4%, Myanmar 9.3%, Australia 7.9% and Thailand 2.9% [15]. China has been influencing the world's rare earth landscape due to its possession of the world's leading rare earth deposits, including the Bayan Obo ore, bastnaesite and ion-absorbed ore. Among them, Bayan Obo ore is dominated by bastnaesite and monazite, which is the largest rare earth ore in the world. Bastnaesite as the second largest rare earth ore in China, its reserves are over 4 million tons, and the Mountain Pass ore in the United States also belongs to this category, with reserves of about 1.4 million tons [16], in addition to bastnaesite is also distributed in Brockman, Australia, Pocos de Caldas, Brazil, Canada Thor Lake and Karonge, Burundi [17].