Potencial unanífero no Brasil: uma revisão bibliográfica

Abstract

Uranium has stood out as a primary source of the global energy matrix since the mid-1960s. The first geological studies on uranium in Brazil were carried out in the late 19th century. The discovery of uranium associated with caldazite happened in the 40s of the last century. According to the INB, in Brazil uranium deposits are located mainly in Bahia, Ceará, Paraná and Minas Gerais, Brazil has significant uranium resources, which leads to the country to occupy a prominent position in the world ranking. The resources are of the order of 244,788 tons of uranium contained (U3O8). The main one, in Caetité, Bahia, has 100 thousand tons, enough volume to supply the nuclear complex of Angra I, II and III for 100 years. The new investment in the exploration of uranium is the Itataia mine in Santa Quitéria - CE. The municipality of Santa Quitéria is located in the northwestern portion of the State of Ceará Objective: This study aims to carry out a bibliographic review on uranium extraction in Brazil, with an emphasis on the mines of Caetité-BA and Itataia-CE, Brazilian government is investing millions to extract uranium. Methodology: This is a bibliographic study, for the construction of this work, several literature referring to the topic under study was consulted, such as: scientific articles, monographs, theses and dissertations, works published in annals, official publications of the Brazilian government and newspaper articles all available on the internet for reading. Results and discussion: When performing the previous reading of the publications found, 14 publications were selected. In Brazil there are significant uranium resources, the country occupies a prominent position in the world ranking. The resources are of the order of 244,788 tons of uranium contained - U3O8, distributed among the states of Bahia, Ceará and others. The Caetité mine was discovered in the early 1970s by the National Nuclear Energy Commission - CNEN. It covers 1,800 hectares with an exclusive uraniumreserve estimated at 100 thousand tons. The Santa Quitéria deposit is located in the central part of the State of Ceará, located 212 km from Fortaleza. The Santa Quitéria deposit has geological reserves of 142,500 tons of uranium associated with phosphate. The mineable reserve has 79.5 Mt of ore with contents of 11% P2O5 and 998ppm of U3O8, containing 8.9 Mt of P2O5 and 79.3 thousand tons of U3O8. Final considerations: Brazil has considerable uranium resources, with the biggest reserves being the Itataia-CE and Caetité-BA mine, with the high investments in recent years through the partnership with the Galvanni group, the country intends to become self-sufficient in production of uranium.