Sparton: More coal ash, more uranium

02 August 2007

[Sparton, 31 July] The stockpiles of coal ash at the Xiaolongtang thermal power plant in Yunnan province, China, may contain more than double the amount of ash than previously thought, Sparton Resources reported. The company said that a GPS controlled survey of the ash heaps indicated that the ash covers an area of some one million square metres at an average thickness of about 10 metres. Based on an average bulk density of some 1.4 tonnes per cubic metre, there could be more than 10 million tonnes of coal ash stored at the site. Staff at the power plant had previously estimated there were some 5 million tonnes of ash. Initial tests have indicated that the material contains some 0.46 pounds of U308 per tonne of ash (160-180 parts per million uranium), suggesting a total of some 2085 tonnes U3O8 (1770 tU) are contained in the ash piles. Sparton said that it had started a drilling program to evaluate the quantity and uranium content of the waste fly ash. The company said the drilling work would be completed in about 30 days. In early January 2007, Canada's Sparton announced the signing of an agreement with the Xiaolongtang Guodian Power Company for a three-phase program to test and possibly commercialize the extraction of uranium from waste coal ash at the company's thermal power stations in Yunnan province.

Further information

Sparton Resources

WNA's Naturally-Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) information paper

WNN: WildHorse and Sparton study coal ash
WNN: CNNC looks for new sources of uranium
WNN: Project to extract uranium from coal ash

---