Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL), based at Jadugoda in East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, would take up an expansion project worth over Rs 1500 crore for enriched uranium.
Mining of the uranium by UCIL has so far remained confined to Jadugoda and adjoining Bhatin and Narwah in East Singhbhum. It will now branch out to other states with uranium deposits.
Clearances from atomic mineral division the department of atomic energy have been obtained. UCIL has discovered fresh uranium reserves in East Singhbhum and new deposits in Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh.
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New deposit sites included Bandohoranga around 20 kms from Jamshedpur, Domiasat , 40 kms from Shillong, and Lambapur, about 200 kms from Hyderabad. UCIL would revive the processing plant at Turamdih near here.
UCIL said the process of acquiring 635.43 acre land at Bandohoranga has been launched. Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh governments were yet to approve the projects.
Studies in Domiasat and Lambapur to decide how much land would have to be acquired at Domiasat and Lambapur and develop cost estimates were on. Ores at Bandohoranga, Domiasat and Lambapur were better than that mined at Jadugoda and Bhatin.
UCIL expected to face some opposition from locals and NGOs apprehending environmental damage owing to mining of uranium. Rehabilitating and compensating families displaced by mines would also be a problem.