Uranium mineral resources of Serbia and their potential economic importance

By means of geological explorations of nuclear mineral raw materials carried out of Serbia during the period 1948-2000, nine deposits and 11 significant uranium mineral occurrences were registered. The total uranium mineral resources within the identified deposits in Serbia are estimated at 11.1 million tons containing 4,150 t of uranium while the potential and insufficiently explored uranium resources contain more than 3,000 t of uranium. Today, no active uranium mines are evident in Serbia, but the same existed during the '60 of the 20th century. The primary genetic and economic types of uranium deposits of Serbia are hydrothermal vein type related to granitoid complexes and infiltration-sediment type in sandstones. The level of geological knowledge of the deposits is different and suggests the necessity of further geological exploration. Economic evaluation of uranium mineral resources of Serbia in this paper encompasses the analysis of geological, metallogenic, mining, marketing, technological (metallurgical), legislative-lawful, regional and geo-ecologic factors. The real possibilities of utilization of uranium from the deposits of hydrothermally-vein type within the granitoid complex of Janja in eastern Serbia have underlined as well as the utilization of infiltration-sedimentary uranium deposits in the Permian-Triassic sediments of the Stara planina and Neogene sediments of Belanovica and Iverak basins in central and western Serbia.