Jamshedpur, Dec. 19: Two new uranium deposits, one in Karnataka and the other in Rajasthan, have come up on the national map.

The sites have been identified by the Atomic Mineral Division (AMD), a wing of the department of atomic energy.

Officials of Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL), Jadugoda, informed a couple of days back that AMD, which undertakes exploration and research activities for uranium mining, has recently identified the new sites at Gulbarga district in Karnataka and Shikar district in Rajasthan. The AMD will now undertake a feasibility study at both these places on the basis of which uranium mining at the respective places will be taken up.

?If the feasibility report of the AMD is a positive one, uranium mining can be carried out in those areas. It shall, however, take quite some time for the AMD to prepare the feasibility report as several details have to be looked into before finalising the report,? UCIL officials informed.

About the two new projects that the UCIL has taken up in Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh, Diwakar Acharya, general manager (mines), UCIL, said: ?In Andhra Pradesh, mining operation will be undertaken in two districts ? Nalgonda and Cuddapah while West Khasi hills in Meghalaya has been identified for mining operations there.?

UCIL secretary P.V. Dubey also spoke about their projects in Jadugoda in East Singhbhum, where the company has started two new mines at Banduhurang (open cast) and Bagjata (underground), while a new processing plant is under construction at Turamdih, about 12 km from the city.

?Moreover, efforts are also being made to start underground uranium mining at Mahuldih in Seraikela-Kharsawan district for which a public hearing is slated on December 20,? the senior UCIL official added. The Mahuldih project will be the seventh such project of UCIL in Jharkhand, Dubey said.

Acharya, who has been entrusted to look after the Mahuldih project, revealed that an environment impact assessment (EIA) report has already been prepared by Mecon, a Ranchi-based consultant firm.

UCIL officials further informed that uranium extracted from different mines in Jharkhand is utilised in 14 nuclear power reactors for generating 2,700 MW of power.