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IAEA TECDOC SERIES World Thorium Occurrences, Deposits and Resources

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IAEA TECDOC SERIES World Thorium Occurrences, Deposits and Resources IAEA-TECDOC-1877 IAEA-TECDOC-1877 IAEA TECDOC SERIES World Thorium Occurrences, Deposits and Resources Deposits and Resources Thorium Occurrences, World IAEA-TECDOC-1877 World Thorium Occurrences, Deposits and Resources International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna ISBN 978–92–0–103719–0 ISSN 1011–4289 @ WORLD THORIUM OCCURRENCES, DEPOSITS AND RESOURCES The following States are Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency: AFGHANISTAN GERMANY PAKISTAN ALBANIA GHANA PALAU ALGERIA GREECE PANAMA ANGOLA GRENADA PAPUA NEW GUINEA ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA GUATEMALA PARAGUAY ARGENTINA GUYANA PERU ARMENIA HAITI PHILIPPINES AUSTRALIA HOLY SEE POLAND AUSTRIA HONDURAS PORTUGAL AZERBAIJAN HUNGARY QATAR BAHAMAS ICELAND REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA BAHRAIN INDIA BANGLADESH INDONESIA ROMANIA BARBADOS IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION BELARUS IRAQ RWANDA BELGIUM IRELAND SAINT LUCIA BELIZE ISRAEL SAINT VINCENT AND BENIN ITALY THE GRENADINES BOLIVIA, PLURINATIONAL JAMAICA SAN MARINO STATE OF JAPAN SAUDI ARABIA BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA JORDAN SENEGAL BOTSWANA KAZAKHSTAN SERBIA BRAZIL KENYA SEYCHELLES BRUNEI DARUSSALAM KOREA, REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE BULGARIA KUWAIT SINGAPORE BURKINA FASO KYRGYZSTAN SLOVAKIA BURUNDI LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC SLOVENIA CAMBODIA REPUBLIC SOUTH AFRICA CAMEROON LATVIA SPAIN CANADA LEBANON SRI LANKA CENTRAL AFRICAN LESOTHO SUDAN REPUBLIC LIBERIA CHAD LIBYA SWEDEN CHILE LIECHTENSTEIN SWITZERLAND CHINA LITHUANIA SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC COLOMBIA LUXEMBOURG TAJIKISTAN CONGO MADAGASCAR THAILAND COSTA RICA MALAWI TOGO CÔTE D’IVOIRE MALAYSIA TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO CROATIA MALI TUNISIA CUBA MALTA TURKEY CYPRUS MARSHALL ISLANDS TURKMENISTAN CZECH REPUBLIC MAURITANIA UGANDA DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC MAURITIUS UKRAINE OF THE CONGO MEXICO UNITED ARAB EMIRATES DENMARK MONACO UNITED KINGDOM OF DJIBOUTI MONGOLIA GREAT BRITAIN AND DOMINICA MONTENEGRO NORTHERN IRELAND DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MOROCCO UNITED REPUBLIC ECUADOR MOZAMBIQUE OF TANZANIA EGYPT MYANMAR UNITED STATES OF AMERICA EL SALVADOR NAMIBIA ERITREA NEPAL URUGUAY ESTONIA NETHERLANDS UZBEKISTAN ESWATINI NEW ZEALAND VANUATU ETHIOPIA NICARAGUA VENEZUELA, BOLIVARIAN FIJI NIGER REPUBLIC OF FINLAND NIGERIA VIET NAM FRANCE NORTH MACEDONIA YEMEN GABON NORWAY ZAMBIA GEORGIA OMAN ZIMBABWE The Agency’s Statute was approved on 23 October 1956 by the Conference on the Statute of the IAEA held at United Nations Headquarters, New York; it entered into force on 29 July 1957. The Headquarters of the Agency are situated in Vienna. Its principal objective is “to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world’’. IAEA-TECDOC-1877 WORLD THORIUM OCCURRENCES, DEPOSITS AND RESOURCES INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY VIENNA, 2019 COPYRIGHT NOTICE All IAEA scientific and technical publications are protected by the terms of the Universal Copyright Convention as adopted in 1952 (Berne) and as revised in 1972 (Paris). The copyright has since been extended by the World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva) to include electronic and virtual intellectual property. Permission to use whole or parts of texts contained in IAEA publications in printed or electronic form must be obtained and is usually subject to royalty agreements. Proposals for non-commercial reproductions and translations are welcomed and considered on a case-by-case basis. Enquiries should be addressed to the IAEA Publishing Section at: Marketing and Sales Unit, Publishing Section International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna International Centre PO Box 100 1400 Vienna, Austria fax: +43 1 26007 22529 tel.: +43 1 2600 22417 email: [email protected] www.iaea.org/books For further information on this publication, please contact: Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Materials Section International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna International Centre PO Box 100 1400 Vienna, Austria Email: [email protected] © IAEA, 2019 Printed by the IAEA in Austria July 2019 IAEA Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Names: International Atomic Energy Agency. Title: World thorium occurrences, deposits and resources / International Atomic Energy Agency. Description: Vienna : International Atomic Energy Agency, 2019. | Series: IAEA TECDOC series, ISSN 1011–4289 ; no. 1877 | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: IAEAL 19-01250 | ISBN 978–92–0–103719–0 (paperback : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Thorium. | Thorium ores. | Mines and mineral deposits. FOREWORD With increased demand for carbon-free energy and accelerated growth of global nuclear power, it is possible that thorium will be used as a nuclear fuel in the foreseeable future. The thorium fuel cycle offers several potential advantages, including superior physical and nuclear properties of fuel, enhanced proliferation resistance, and reduced plutonium and actinide production. Thorium use in light water reactors, high temperature reactors and liquid fluoride thorium reactors has been successfully demonstrated. Recently, many Member States have announced new initiatives involving the use of thorium. During the peak years of nuclear development in the 1960s and 1970s, thorium was regarded as an alternative to uranium for fuelling nuclear reactors, and a number of thorium fuelled reactors were developed and put into operation. Thorium fuelled reactors have demonstrated advantages such as a higher yield of neutrons and the absence of plutonium produced in the uranium fuel cycle. Among the disadvantages are the intermediate production of protactinium-233, which diminishes the yield of neutrons, and problems related to radiation, the inert nature of thorium oxide and the reprocessing of spent thorium fuel. The crustal abundance of thorium is three to five times greater than that of uranium. Thorium occurs as oxides, silicates and phosphates, often with rare earth elements and other critical materials such as niobium, tantalum and zirconium. The total world thorium resources are estimated to be around 6 million tonnes. However, thorium resources cannot be compared with uranium resources, the total identified and predicted resources of which were approximately 9.3 million tonnes as of 2014. These thorium estimates are based on historic data and recent estimates from a few countries. Thorium geology and mineralogy, though not widely studied in the past, is currently receiving increasing attention owing to its close association with rare earth elements and other critical materials. The possibility of thorium as a by-product of rare earth element production is becoming increasingly relevant today. This publication attempts to combine existing knowledge of thorium geology and mineralization into a brief account of the worldwide occurrence of thorium resources. Recent advances in estimating thorium resources are also presented. The IAEA officers responsible for this publication were M. Fairclough and H. Tulsidas of the Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology. EDITORIAL NOTE This publication has been prepared from the original material as submitted by the contributors and has not been edited by the editorial staff of the IAEA. The views expressed remain the responsibility of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the views of the IAEA or its Member States. Neither the IAEA nor its Member States assume any responsibility for consequences which may arise from the use of this publication. This publication does not address questions of responsibility, legal or otherwise, for acts or omissions on the part of any person. The use of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any judgement by the publisher, the IAEA, as to the legal status of such countries or territories, of their authorities and institutions or of the delimitation of their boundaries. The mention of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated as registered) does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be construed as an endorsement or recommendation on the part of the IAEA. The authors are responsible for having obtained the necessary permission for the IAEA to reproduce, translate or use material from sources already protected by copyrights. The IAEA has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third party Internet web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1. BACKGROUND ................................................................................................. 1 1.2. OBJECTIVE ........................................................................................................ 1 1.3. SCOPE ................................................................................................................. 2 1.4. STRUCTURE ...................................................................................................... 2 2. PRINCIPAL PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES............................................ 2 3. THORIUM MINERALS ..................................................................................................... 3 4. CLASSIFICATION OF THORIUM DEPOSITS ............................................................... 4 4.1. DESCRIPTION OF THORIUM DEPOSIT TYPES AND EXAMPLES ........... 8 4.1.1. Carbonatite .............................................................................................. 8 4.1.2. Alkaline/peralkaline
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