Asked Questions Related - What is uranium? - Uranium is the
heaviest naturally-occurring chemical element and it is
radioactive, which means that this element, when concentrated,
is capable of producing energy. Uranium is a hard, dense,
silver-gray metal in concentrated form. - Where does uranium
occur in the natural envrionment? - Most rocks contain trace
amounts of uranium (bulk concentrations on the order of 2 to 4
parts per million), however, uranium is not distributed
uniformly through rocks, but tends to be concentrated in certain
minerals. Some common accessory minerals in igneous,
metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks, such as apatite and zircon,
contain 2 to 1000 ppm uranium. Ore minerals like pitchblende, a
variety of uraninite, uraninite (85 per cent uranium),
carnotite, autunite, uranophane, and tobernite have uranium
concentrations that are high enough to be economically mined. In
addition, uranium can also be recovered in commercial quantities
from coal and monazite sands. Uranium also occurs natur