The Jordan Uranium Project:

Jordan Uranium Mining COmpany (JUMCO)

 

 

Jordan Uranium Mining Company (JUMCO), which was established in 2013, is owned by the Government of Jordan / Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC). The main objective of JUMCO is the exploration, mining, and processing of nuclear and non-nuclear metals such as uranium, thorium, zirconium, vanadium, and any other elements present in the natural ores of Jordan. The company has advanced work in the development of the Central Jordan Uranium Project (CJUP), achieving important and valuable results related to geological exploration and resource estimation of uranium ores based on international Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) requirements.
 

Uranium Ore Exploration

In the field of exploration and resource evaluation of uranium mineralization in Central Jordan, JUMCO has worked since its inception to intensify the geological work in the areas designated for the project to increase the degree of reliability in resource estimates according to the requirements of the international Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC). To achieve this, the company has excavated more than 9,000 trenches and collected more than 90,500 geochemical samples for the purpose of chemical and physical analysis. The effort has resulted in issuing three reports on resource estimation of uranium mineralization, which have reported about 42,000 tons of uranium yellowcake in Central Jordan.

         


Extraction of Yellowcake

The hydrometallurgical process developed for the project has been successfully proven to purify and concentrate uranium in form of sodium diuranate (SDU) and uranyl peroxide (UP). Furthermore, successful steps and major milestones were achieved in the design and engineering of the uranium extraction process. A large pilot plant was constructed at the Central Jordan Uranium Project site and was fully commissioned in 2021. Currently, tens of tonnes of uranium ore are processed based on heap leaching of the uranium-bearing ore to produce several kilograms of uranium concentrate (yellowcake).

         

Pioneering Analytical Laboratories

State-of-the-art laboratories have been established at the CJUP site. The laboratories have been equipped, in cooperation with IAEA, with the latest high-tech devices to conduct hydrometallurgical tests and chemical and physical analyses related to uranium extraction. The facility encompasses physical and chemical preparation labs, as well as analytical instrumental labs including:

  • Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES).
  • Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS).
  • Ion Chromatography (IC).
  • Automatic Titrator.
  • Wavelength Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence spectrometer (WDXRF).

JUMCO labs obtained ISO 17025:2017 accreditation in December 2023 by the Accreditation Unit of the Jordanian Accreditation and Standardization System (JAS-AU).

 

         

 

   

 

Publications with JUMCO​

  1. A. van der Heyden, A. Sader, A. Al Dajani, T. Barahmeh, Exploration trenches for uranium resource evaluation, Applied Earth Science, 2015, 124(2), 78-89, doi: 10.1179/1743275815Y.0000000008
  2. M. Z. Abzalov, A. van der Heyden, A. Saymeh & M. Abuqudaira (2015) Geology and metallogeny of Jordanian uranium deposits, Applied Earth Science, 124:2, 63-77, DOI: 10.1179/1743275815Y.0000000009
  3. D. Francois-Bongarcon (2015) Ore heterogeneity case study and optimisation of sampling protocols for the Central Jordan Uranium project, Applied Earth Science, 124:2, 90-94, DOI: 10.1179/1743275815Y.0000000001
  4. C. Bessin, J. Deraisme & D. Renard (2015) Choice of a methodological approach for the estimation of recoverable resources with Uranium deposits in Central Jordan, Applied Earth Science, 124:2, 95-103, DOI: 10.1179/1743275815Y.0000000002
  6. M. Z. Abzalov & H. Allaboun (2015) Bulk sample testing for metallurgical characterisation of surficial uranium mineralisation at the Central Jordan Uranium Project, Applied Earth Science, 124:2, 129-134, DOI: 10.1179/1743275815Y.0000000010