Partners discuss licensing for Brazil's phosphate-uranium project

Tomás Albuquerque, President of Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil (INB), met with the Governor of Ceará, Elmano de Freitas, as well as Marlos Costa, President of Brazilian Nuclear Energy Holdings Company (ENBPar), Marcelo Oliveira, the CEO of INB's project partner the fertiliser specialists Galvani, and others, including the regional coordinator of the INB Santa Quitéria Project, José Roberto de Alcântara.

The meeting was focused on "aligning the licensing process for phosphate and uranium exploration in the state, as well as discussing strategic investments in infrastructure", INB said.

The project is to be implemented at Fazenda Itataia, in the municipality of Santa Quitéria. The collophanite deposit at Itataia is composed of 99.8% phosphate and 0.2% uranium. The deposit - located in the interior of the state of Ceará - is the largest discovered uranium reserve in Brazil.

INB says the projected annual production is approximately 1.05 million tonnes of phosphate fertiliser and 220,000 tonnes of dicalcium phosphate for animal feed: "Furthermore, the project is expected to produce approximately 2,300 tonnes of uranium concentrate per year, destined to supply the Angra 1, Angra 2, and, in the future, Angra 3 nuclear power plants. This initiative reinforces the country's strategy of self-sufficiency in nuclear fuel production, with potential for export."

The Santa Quitéria Project is currently in the preliminary environmental licensing process with the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) - it was accepted for environmental review in March 2022.

Background

According to World Nuclear Association, following active exploration in the 1970s and 1980s, Brazil has reasonably assured resources of 210,000 tonnes of uranium.

Uranium has been mined in Brazil since 1982, but the only operating mine is INB's Lagoa Real/Caetité mine, with a capacity of 340 tU per year. The mine has known resources of 10,000 tU at 0.3%U.

According to figures reported at the time plans for an extraction plant were announced in 2020 the Itatiaia deposit has an estimated 142,200 tU, inter-mixed with phosphates. The deposit has exploitable reserves of 79.5 million tonnes of ore, at grades of 11% P2O5 and 0.0998% U3O8, equating to about 8.9 million tonnes of P2O5 and 79.3 thousand tonnes of U3O8. The project would increase Brazil's production of phosphate fertilisers by an estimated 10%.

Brazil has a long-established nuclear energy sector. Two pressurised water reactors - Angra 1 and 2 - supply about 3% of the country's electricity. There are also plans to complete a third unit at Angra and potential new capacity is being explored, including via a microreactor being developed in the country.