The supply overhang was extended due to the arrival on the Western market of uranium from the former Soviet Union starting in 1993. Utilities satisfied requirements by drawing down their significant inventories, without recourse to new production. As mines were being run down, many cut production or closed. Honouring these created a significant overhang. Many utilities had signed uranium contracts in anticipation of building more plants. By 1985, the nuclear construction programme had been cut back severely.
Western production peaked in 1980 and stayed above annual reactor requirements until 1985. Many new mines were brought into production, often underwritten by long-term contracts agreed with electricity utilities in North America, Japan and Western Europe. A period of rapidly expanding civil nuclear power saw uranium production pick up as reactor orders expanded. Uranium demand fell sharply in the 1960s and, in response, production halved by the mid-1960s. Production rose rapidly in the 1950s to satisfy the requirement for highly enriched uranium and plutonium. The generation of electricity from nuclear fuel was incidental to the nuclear arms race.
Total world resources of uranium, as with any other mineral or metal, are not known exactly.
This means that it needs to be in a mineral form that can easily be dissolved by sulfuric acid or sodium carbonate leaching. * Where uranium is at low levels in rock or sands (certainly less than 1000 ppm) it needs to be in a form which is easily separated for those concentrations to be called 'ore' – that is, implying that the uranium can be recovered economically. Table 1: Typical natural uranium concentrations Very high-grade ore (Canada) – 20% U It is a metal approximately as common as tin or zinc, and it is a constituent of most rocks and even of the sea. Uranium is a relatively common element in the crust of the Earth (very much more than in the mantle). The world's known uranium resources increased by at least one-quarter in the last decade due to increased mineral exploration.Quantities of mineral resources are greater than commonly perceived, and are relative to both market prices and cost of extraction.Economic concentrations of it are not uncommon. Uranium is a relatively common metal, found in rocks and seawater.