UCIL bets on greenfield mines, copper residue to double uranium output by 2036

The Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) plans to double its domestic uranium production by 2036, backed by four greenfield mining and processing projects and a novel initiative to recover uranium from copper mine residue.

As part of its push towards a circular economy, UCIL is expected to begin extracting uranium from copper mine residue from 2029-30. An understanding has already been reached with Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL) for the initiative, which is expected to lower mining costs and make uranium recovery more economical.

UCIL CMD Dr. Kancham Anand Rao disclosed the plans while responding to a question from The Hindu at a media workshop organised by the Press Information Bureau and the Department of Atomic Energy in Jaduguda on October 4 and 5, 2026, as part of UCIL’s diamond jubilee celebrations.

“This is a long process. We will take some time till we start this extraction,” Mr. Rao said.

The initiative will not involve any additional mining. HCL will continue mining for copper and extracting the commercially recoverable portion, while UCIL will use the residual material.

“We are not going to mine from Hindustan Copper plant tailings. Hindustan Copper Ltd mines for copper. But they take out only 5%. 95% is their reject. We will take that 95% and recover 10% of it. That will become equal to our ore grade uranium. It will come to us for processing. So there is no mining cost involved,” he said.

The remaining waste would be returned to HCL, making the process both economically attractive and aligned with the principles of a circular economy.

Four greenfield projects

UCIL’s production expansion plan comes as India seeks to increase domestic uranium availability to support its growing nuclear power programme. The country’s nuclear power capacity is currently around 9 GW, with UCIL supplying roughly a third of the uranium required from domestic sources.

India’s uranium resources are relatively limited and low-grade, making the country dependent on imports. In the longer term, the nuclear energy programme envisages a gradual shift towards thorium under the second and third stages of India’s three-stage nuclear programme.

“The long-term plan is to become majorly independent of uranium for power production because our domestic resources are limited and low-grade. The goal is to switch to our abundant thorium reserves. However, small amounts of uranium will still be needed for research and medical isotope production,” Mr. Rao said.

To strengthen domestic uranium production in the interim, UCIL is developing four greenfield projects.

The most prominent is the proposed mining and processing facility at Rohil in Rajasthan, which will have the capacity to mine and process 2,500 tonnes of uranium ore a day.

A second project at Gogi in Karnataka remains at an early stage, with UCIL awaiting precise area demarcation from the State government. The other two projects are planned in Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Private participation

Mr. Rao said the entry of private players into nuclear power generation would complement rather than compete with UCIL.

Private companies have been permitted to participate in setting up nuclear reactors, but uranium mining remains under government control through UCIL.

“It does not affect UCIL. Private players are permitted to set up reactors, but uranium mining remains exclusively under government control via UCIL. We do not compete,” he added.

A Public Sector Enterprise under the administrative control of the Department of Atomic Energy, UCIL was established in 1967 and is headquartered in Jaduguda, East Singhbhum district, Jharkhand.

It remains India’s only company statutorily authorised to extract and process uranium ore and specialises in underground and opencast mining as well as the chemical processing of low-grade uranium ores.

(The journalist visited Jaduguda on the invite of the Press Information Bureau and the Department of Atomic Energy)