PAEC said, already Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) has accorded approval for this project.
The annual recurring expenditure would stand at PKR453.02 million while the annual income after completion of the project would stand at PKR752.4 million.
According to a paper, PAEC has obtained the no objection certificate from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for introducing the project.
The official of PAEC said, In-Situ Leach (ISL) mining method will be used to produce uranium using alkaline solution (lixiviant) with hydrogen Peroxide as an oxidant. ISL is a mining technique, which has recently been developed and presently being exercised to mine out more than 20% uranium of the world.
The lixiviant while travelling from injection to production well will dissolve uranium and this pregnant uranium bearing solution (leach liquor) will be pumped out to the surface and fed to the chemical processing plant to recover uranium. The production of uranium will commence by July 2010. The PAEC official said that the government has already allocated PKR500 million in the public Sector development Programme 2009-10 for the project.
At present the fuel mix in the power generation is dominated by fossil fuel (44.1% and 20.2% oil).
The PAEC official said under the Energy Security Action Plan, the Pakistan government wants to increase the share of nuclear power from 1% to 4.2% by 2030.
The official said, the sponsors after extensive geo-scientific investigation have confirmed uranium reserves of 578 tons as Reasonable Assured Reserves (RAR and 2000 tones as Reasonable Assured Potential (RAP) category. The sponsors have estimated that the cost of the uranium production will be reduced from $198 per kg to $92 per kg.
