Uranium Mining Methods: Teacher Answer Key
Mining Method
Benefits
Impacts
Underground
mining
•	Provides jobs
•	Brings money to the local
economy and may lead to
improved local facilities and
services
•	Permits mining operations to
be largely out of sight
•	Allows for production in all
kinds of weather conditions
•	Produces safety and health hazards
if unauthorized persons enter mines
or fall in openings
•	Presents numerous safety and
health risks for workers working
underground
•	Releases radon and radioactive dust
into the environment
•	Produces contaminated soil, water
and tailings that can impact the
surrounding soil, air and
water if not managed properly
Open-pit mining
•	Provides jobs
•	Brings money to the local
economy and may lead to
improved local facilities and
services
•	Allows for high production of
uranium that brings
money to the company
•	Produces safety and health hazards
if unauthorized persons enter or fall
in pits
•	Releases radon into the
environment
•	Produces tailings/radioactive waste
that can contaminate the
soil, air and water
In-situ leaching
•	Provides jobs
•	Brings money to the local
economy and may lead to
improved local facilities and
services
•	Reduces risk of employee
accidents and exposure to
radiation
•	Costs less than other mining
methods
•	Eliminates the concerns of
open pits, radioactive dust
and uranium mill tailings
•	Risk of spills, leaks and
contamination of groundwater
and potential drinking water
•	Releases radon into the
environment
•	Produces waste slurries and waste
water that could contaminate the
environment if not managed
properly
•	Leaching chemicals may impact or
contaminate groundwater, soil and
rocks
•	Only feasible in deposits that are
saturated and have high
permeability
rnA United States	RadTown Uranium Activity Set	EPA 402-B-19-065
Environmental Protection
#* Agency	https://www.EPA.gov/RadTown/Activitv-4-Uranium-Mining-Methods

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