| Thorium is one of the essential resources being researched and explored for a sustainable solution to the world’s energy situation. A responsible and well-structured approach to measuring and estimating these resources, therefore, becomes very important. While demand for thorium is expected to see a rise in the foreseeable future, at the present, there is a wide variation in both sources and estimates that are available worldwide. Estimates and numbers suffer from inconsistent measurement methods and a lack of an international standard.  Click on the Th Resources image above or here to get to the Thorium Resource Page for more information. |
| Thorium is one of the essential resources being researched and explored for a sustainable solution to the world’s energy situation. A responsible and well-structured approach to measuring and estimating these resources, therefore, becomes very important. While demand for thorium is expected to see a rise in the foreseeable future, at the present, there is a wide variation in both sources and estimates that are available worldwide. Estimates and numbers suffer from inconsistent measurement methods and a lack of an international standard. Thorium resources are defined by two sets of entities, one by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the other supported by reports from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Energy Agency (IAEA). The OECD published that carbonatite-hosted deposits are common around the world and have been documented in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the Russian Federation, Scandinavia, South Africa and the United States. Other places that have reported deposits are the heavy mineral beach sands on the coasts of Australia, Brazil, India, Mozambique and South Africa. There are also deposits in Bayan Obo in China, which have not been assigned to a particular category. It has been predicted that beach sand deposits in Brazil and India will be an important source of thorium production in the future. According to the same report, Turkey (Europe), Brazil (Americas), Egypt (Africa), CIS, India and the Asian part of the Russian Federation hold amongst the largest deposits in the world. Under the USGS estimate, USA, Australia, and India have particularly large reserves of thorium. Further, the USGS claims the global “recoverable reserves” of thorium are 1.2 million metric tonnes, while the IAEA claims that the global “Reasonable Assured Reserves” are 2.2 million metric tonnes. The discrepancies are quite apparent. To add to the complexity, there are year-on-year variations in numbers. Consider this 2011 number from USGS quoting the world resources at 1 913 000 tTh and the IAEA quoting 6 730 000-7 590 800 tTh. Interestingly, recent research also shows a significant increase in numbers. For example, the IAEA in 2005 reported the number of 2 610 000 tTh, much lower than the recent figure. India and Australia are believed to possess about 300 000 tTh each, around 25% of the world's thorium reserves. These numbers however vary greatly in the OECD report, which estimates Australia's Reasonably Assured Reserves (RAR) at 19 000 tTh (and not 300 000 tTh as estimated by USGS). The two sources also vary greatly for countries like Brazil, Turkey and Australia. The only country, which seems to unanimously possess large reserves and not as glaringly different, is India (290 000 tTh by USGS; 319 000 tTh by OECD/IAEA). The challenge of arriving at estimates and numbers has been compounded by the fact that there is no international standard classification as of today. There have been attempts, like last year's July conference in Santiago, Chile, organized by IAEA. The goal was to discuss applying the United Nations Framework Classification for Fossil Energy and Mineral Reserves and Resources 2009 (UNFC–2009) for the evaluation of uranium and thorium resources. With participants and experts from over 40 countries, this particular exercise was made possible under the umbrella of the interregional IAEA technical cooperation (TC) project “Supporting Uranium Exploration, Resource Augmentation and Production Using Advanced Techniques”, supported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Ibero-American Programme for Science and Technology for Development (CYTED). The UNFC-2009 enables a simple, uniform format for reporting energy reserves and resources to ensure sustainable approaches to resource extraction, including the recovery of uranium and thorium. During this workshop, experts shared various experiences and approaches for the in-depth application of the framework and also focused on tools for global communication in evaluating and assessing uranium and thorium resources from a sustainability point of view, where recovery is maximized and the footprint of mining and use of energy and water are minimized. Overall, the uncertainty on the front continues, but efforts like the Santiago conference, setting an international standard and increased research and exploration of thorium-rich nations over the next few years, should provide us with more definite answers as we look for sustainable energy solutions for the future.  |