Mining

History

DIAMO, state enterprise, Stráž pod Ralskem, is the legal successor and follows up on the activities of the Czechoslovak Uranium Industry, originating from 1946 in the historic silver and uranium deposits at Jáchymov.

Thanks to the quick progress of the survey activities and the newly found deposits, especially at Příbram and Horní Slavkov, production significantly increased in the years 1946–1956. Uranium mining culminated in the late fifties with 3,036 tonnes, where the mining works reached the biggest volumes ever. In the period of 1951–1955 mining activities expanded ten times in comparison to the period of 1945–1950 and even twenty-four times in the period of 1956–1961. Since the early sixties the mining was more or less stabilised on the level of about 2,700 tonnes of uranium per year, even though the progress and the technological procedures used were significantly affected by the transfers to deposits with differing geological mining conditions.

A radical attenuation came after 1989 – after the announcement of the attenuation programme, when in the course of 5 years uranium mining decreased to circa 600 tonnes a year. Commercial uranium ore mining was terminated in the Czech Republic on the basis of Government Resolution No. 50 of 25 January 2016 as at 31 December 2016.

Total uranium production in the period of 1946–2016 exceeded 112,000 tonnes.

Localities

In the Czech Republic 164 uranium ore deposits were found and surveyed, with 66 used for subsequent mining. The largest are Příbram, Rožná, Stráž, Hamr, Jáchymov, Horní Slavkov and Zadní Chodov.

Current status

At present uranium is only produced as a by-product of remediation of the rock environment after in situ leaching of uranium at the Stráž deposit and in the process of cleaning of technological solutions and mine waters from Příbram and Rožná deposits.