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Strategies & Market Trends : True face of China -- A Modern Kaleidoscope -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (2960)	3/5/2008 12:17:14 AM
From: RealMuLan	Respond to of 12464

China Uncovers Country's Biggest Uranium Deposit resourceinvestor.com By Interfax-China 25 Feb 2008 at 11:08 AM GMT-05:00 SHANGHAI (Interfax-China) -- State-owned China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) has discovered China's largest uranium deposit to date, with the new find in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region estimated to hold tens of thousands of tonnes of uranium, state media reported today. The deposit, in Ordos, was discovered around the same time as another large uranium deposit that has reserves of over 10,000 tonnes. The other deposit was uncovered in Ili in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, according to People's Daily. Detailed figures regarding the size and scale of both deposits have not been publicly released. According to an official statement from China?s Mineral Ministry, Chinese geologists took 17 years to make this breakthrough discovery at Yili basin. The deposit could produce more than $40 billion worth of uranium, coal and associated minerals, with coal resources totaling more than 4 billion tonnes. The discoveries were made under a new round of government-led efforts to assess the nation's uranium resources, which are estimated to be in the millions of tonnes, the report said. China plans to attain a total nuclear power generation capacity of 40,000 megawatts by the end of 2020. In order to support such capacity, China will require 7,000 tonnes of uranium annually by this time, a domestic industry expert told Interfax previously. China aims to build a strategic uranium reserve in the coming years. China will likely seek annual imports of about 2,500 tonnes of Australian uranium by 2020, or about one thirds of its expected annual demand of 7,500, according to uranium experts. In 2007, Australia, with just under a quarter of world uranium production, and China ratified two uranium trade agreements signed in April 2006. Over the next 10 years, China will construct as many as three new nuclear power plants each year, resulting in increased demand for nuclear fuels of up to five times current consumption. There are currently 20 plants under construction with plans for 72 more in Russia, China, India and Japan. China alone hopes to add 24 to 30 by 2020. According to the World Nuclear Association, about 16% of the world's electricity came from 441 nuclear reactors last year.