Most of the world’s uranium comes from just three countries: Kazakhstan, Canada, and Namibia. Together they produced about 75% of global supply in 2024. Mining operations span every inhabited continent, but the geology that concentrates uranium into mineable deposits is relatively rare, so production clusters in a handful of regions with the right conditions underground.
The Top Producing Countries
Kazakhstan dominates global uranium production. In 2024, the country produced roughly 23,270 tonnes of uranium, far ahead of every other nation. Canada came second at 14,309 tonnes, followed by Namibia at 7,333 tonnes. Australia (4,598 tonnes), Uzbekistan (around 4,000 tonnes), and Russia (2,738 tonnes) round out the next tier. China, Niger, India, and South Africa each contribute smaller amounts.
This ranking has been fairly stable for the past decade, though individual countries fluctuate. Canada’s output, for example, dropped sharply between 2018 and 2021 when its largest mines temporarily shut down, then rebounded as they restarted. Niger’s production collapsed from over 4,000 tonnes in 2015 to under 1,000 in 2024, largely due to political instability.
Kazakhstan’s Desert Basins
Kazakhstan’s mines are concentrated in two major uranium-bearing regions in the central and southern parts of the country. The Chu-Sarysu basin, a roughly 40,000 square kilometer zone, holds most of the operating mines, organized into northern and central mining groups. Mines like Inkai, Akdala, East Mynkuduk, and Tortkuduk operate here. To the south, separated by the Karatau Mountains, the Syrdarya basin hosts another cluster, including the Karamurun and Kharasan mines.
Nearly all of Kazakhstan’s uranium is extracted using a technique called in-situ leaching (ISL). Instead of digging ore out of the ground, miners inject a solution into the deposit through wells, dissolve the uranium underground, and pump the uranium-bearing liquid back to the surface. This works because Kazakhstan’s deposits sit in porous sandstone layers where fluid flows easily. It’s cheaper and less disruptive to the surface than conventional mining, which is one reason Kazakhstan can produce so much so affordably.
The state-owned company Kazatomprom controls most of this production, with its share estimated at 13,000 to 14,000 tonnes in 2025. A small underground mine called Vostok operates separately in northern Kazakhstan, outside the two main basins.
Canada’s High-Grade Underground Mines
Canada’s uranium comes almost entirely from the Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan, a remote, forested region that holds some of the richest uranium deposits ever discovered. The ore grades here are extraordinary. At McArthur River, the average grade is about 17% uranium oxide, with some zones exceeding 20%. For comparison, many mines around the world operate on ore that contains less than 0.1%. That concentration means a relatively small amount of rock yields a large amount of uranium.
The two flagship operations are McArthur River/Key Lake and Cigar Lake, both in the eastern Athabasca Basin, about 80 kilometers apart. In 2024, McArthur River produced 7,808 tonnes of uranium (13% of global output), and Cigar Lake produced 6,501 tonnes (11%). Those two mines alone account for nearly a quarter of all uranium mined worldwide. Both are deep underground operations. The deposits formed along an ancient geological boundary where younger sandstone layers meet much older metamorphic rock beneath, creating conditions that trapped and concentrated uranium over hundreds of millions of years.
Namibia’s Open-Pit Operations
Namibia has emerged as the world’s third-largest producer, with its output climbing steadily over the past decade. The country’s standout operation is the Husab mine, a massive open-pit site that produced 4,437 tonnes in 2024, about 7% of global supply. Husab is owned by Swakop Uranium, which is controlled by a Chinese state-owned nuclear company. The Rössing mine, one of the longest-running uranium operations in the world, also continues to produce in the same region of western Namibia, near the coastal desert.
Australia’s Massive Reserves
Australia holds the world’s largest known uranium reserves but produces a relatively modest amount, roughly 4,598 tonnes in 2024. The country has historically limited mining through federal and state-level policies, so only a few sites operate at any given time.
The dominant operation is Olympic Dam in South Australia, a giant underground mine that primarily targets copper but recovers uranium as a byproduct. Olympic Dam sits on the world’s largest single uranium resource, containing more than 2 million tonnes of uranium oxide. It accounts for about two-thirds of Australia’s uranium production and roughly 80% of the country’s total known uranium endowment. The ore grade is low (about 580 parts per million), but the sheer volume of rock being processed for copper makes uranium recovery economical.
The Four Mile mine, also in South Australia and adjacent to the now-closed Beverley mine, uses in-situ recovery to extract uranium from sandstone deposits at a higher grade of about 0.29%. The well-known Ranger mine in the Northern Territory, which operated for four decades, ceased processing after government intervention and is now in rehabilitation.
The United States
The U.S. was once a major uranium producer but now contributes very little to global supply. Most historical production came from the Colorado Plateau region spanning Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, along with deposits in Wyoming and Texas. Several in-situ recovery operations in Wyoming and Texas have operated intermittently in recent years, scaling up or down depending on uranium prices.
New activity is picking up. In 2025, the Department of the Interior approved the Velvet-Wood uranium and vanadium mine in San Juan County, Utah. The company behind it, Anfield Energy, also plans to reopen the Shootaring Canyon uranium mill south of Hanksville, Utah. These projects reflect a broader push to rebuild domestic uranium supply after years of relying heavily on imports, particularly from Kazakhstan and Russia.
How Mining Methods Vary by Location
The three main methods for extracting uranium each dominate in different parts of the world. In-situ leaching, the well-based dissolution technique, is the most common globally and accounts for the vast majority of production in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It works only where uranium sits in permeable rock layers below the water table.
Conventional underground mining is used where deposits are deep and highly concentrated, as in Canada’s Athabasca Basin. These operations look similar to other hard-rock mines: shafts, tunnels, and heavy equipment, with the added complexity of managing radioactive dust and groundwater. Open-pit mining, where ore is excavated from a large surface excavation, is used at Namibia’s Husab mine and at several operations in other countries where deposits are close to the surface and spread over a wide area.
A fourth approach, byproduct recovery, applies at Olympic Dam in Australia and at some phosphate processing facilities. In these cases, uranium is collected during the processing of another mineral, making it economical even at low concentrations.
The Five Largest Individual Mines
In 2024, the top five mines by output were:
- McArthur River/Key Lake (Canada): 7,808 tonnes, 13% of world production, underground mine
- Cigar Lake (Canada): 6,501 tonnes, 11% of world production, underground mine
- Husab (Namibia): 4,437 tonnes, 7% of world production, open pit
- Karatau/Budenovskoye 2 (Kazakhstan): 3,299 tonnes, 6% of world production, in-situ leaching
- Inkai (Kazakhstan): 2,992 tonnes, 5% of world production, in-situ leaching
These five mines alone produced 42% of all uranium mined on the planet. The concentration of supply in so few operations, and so few countries, is one reason uranium markets can be volatile. A shutdown at a single mine in Saskatchewan or a policy change in Kazakhstan can ripple through global supply.