Out of the [Coal] Ashes

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Nuclear Power - Economics, Design, & Industry

A small mining company has big plans to sell the uranium left over when coal is burned. Sparton could be producing up to two million pounds of uranium in China annually after three years, enough to fuel a new reactor. That forecast reflects the waste-coal-ash project in Yunnan and other secondary recovery activities in which Sparton is involved. Some mining companies like Australia's PacMag Metals Ltd. and closely held NuCoal Energy Corp. of Saskatchewan, Canada, for example, are looking into whether they can improve the economics of coal-related uranium-recovery projects by extracting other valuable metals at the same time. Some coal deposits may contain commercial amounts of metals such as germanium, which is used in products ranging from semiconductors to solar panels.

See original URL: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203917304574414713352371376