Editing Nuclear fuel cycle (section)

===Mining===
{{Main|Uranium mining}}
Uranium ore can be extracted through conventional mining in open pit and underground methods similar to those used for mining other metals. [[In-situ leach]] [[mining]] methods also are used to mine uranium in the [[United States]]. In this technology, uranium is leached from the in-place ore through an array of regularly spaced wells and is then recovered from the leach solution at a surface plant. Uranium ores in the United States typically range from about 0.05 to 0.3% uranium oxide (U<sub>3</sub>O<sub>8</sub>). Some uranium deposits developed in other countries are of higher grade and are also larger than deposits mined in the United States. Uranium is also present in very low-grade amounts (50 to 200 parts per million) in some domestic [[phosphate]]-bearing deposits of marine origin. Because very large quantities of phosphate-bearing rock are mined for the production of wet-process [[phosphoric acid]] used in high analysis [[fertilizer]]s and other phosphate chemicals, at some phosphate processing plants the uranium, although present in very low concentrations, can be economically recovered from the process stream.