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IAEA TECDOC SERIES Thorium Resources As Co- and By-Products of Rare Earth Deposits

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IAEA-TECDOC-1892 IAEA-TECDOC-1892 IAEA TECDOC SERIES Thorium Resources as Co- and By-products of Rare Earth Deposits IAEA-TECDOC-1892 Thorium Resources as Co- and By-products of Rare Earth Deposits International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna ISBN 978–92–0–163319–4 ISSN 1011–4289 @ THORIUM RESOURCES AS CO- AND BY-PRODUCTS OF RARE EARTH DEPOSITS 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-1892 THORIUM RESOURCES AS CO- AND BY-PRODUCTS OF RARE EARTH DEPOSITS 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/publications 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 December 2019 IAEA Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Names: International Atomic Energy Agency. Title: Thorium resources as co- and by-products of rare earth deposits / International Atomic Energy Agency. Description: Vienna : International Atomic Energy Agency, 2019. | Series: IAEA TECDOC series, ISSN 1011–4289 ; no. 1892 | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: IAEAL 19-01284 | ISBN 978–92–0–163319–4 (paperback : alk. paper) | ISBN 978–92–0–163419–1 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Thorium ores. | Rare earths. | Nuclear fuels. FOREWORD Increased demand for carbon-free energy and accelerated growth of global nuclear power make it possible that thorium will be used as a nuclear fuel in the future. Full commercialization of nuclear power based on thorium is yet to materialize because pilot test reactors and projects intended to appraise thorium have not yet found it to be a feasible reactor fuel. Government supported research projects have recently focused on the development of thorium fuelled nuclear power. Some of the advantages of thorium as a nuclear fuel source include its abundance in the Earth’s crust (6–10 g/t, making it 3–4 times more abundant than uranium) and the fact that most significant thorium deposits contain other valuable minerals such as niobium, rare earth elements, tantalum and/or titanium. Moreover, the types of waste product from spent fuel based on thorium fission are not useful for nuclear weapons (in contrast to plutonium, which is a by-product of nuclear power generation using uranium), and fuels based on thorium are efficient for reducing current plutonium stocks in that the fission chain reaction can be initiated using plutonium. This publication provides an overview of thorium production as by-product production, including exploration, resource assessment, mining and processing, markets and economics (of the main product rare earth elements). It describes good practices in exploration, evaluation and production, and discusses issues relating to health, safety and environment, as well as waste management and mine closure. Other topics covered include storage of thorium products; policy, regulation and governance, social acceptance and stakeholder communications; and classification and management of projects with respect to application of United Nations Framework Classification for Fossil Energy and Mineral Reserves and Resources 2009. It also presents case studies of major projects in production and committed projects. The IAEA gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the experts who participated in the consultancy meetings for the planning and editing of this publication, and in particular the contributions of the late R. Villas-Boas (Brazil). 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 .............................................................................................. 2 1.3. SCOPE ....................................................................................................... 2 1.4. STRUCTURE ............................................................................................ 2 2. GEOLOGY OF THORIUM .................................................................................... 3 2.1. GEOCHEMICAL BEHAVIOUR .............................................................. 3 2.2. OVERVIEW OF THORIUM PROVINCES ............................................. 3 2.3. PRIMARY DEPOSITS OF THORIUM AND REE ................................. 6 2.3.1. Alkaline intrusions and igneous complexes ................................... 6 2.3.2. Carbonatites ................................................................................... 6 2.3.3. Syenites and related rocks .............................................................. 7 2.3.4. Alkaline granites, pegmatites and
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