HYDERABAD Andhra Pradesh is emerging as the uranium and thorium hub of the country with new reserves of these rare minerals being unearthed in Chittoor and Warangal districts. Uranium has been found in Kadapa and Nalgonda districts while thorium reserves have been discovered in Visakhapatnam , Prakasam and Nalgonda districts. The latest findings of uranium and thorium deposits in Manupatulagadda and Mallampalli areas of Warangal district and Allapakonta and Vembakam in Chittoor district comes at a time when India is planning to produce nuclear power in a big way. Researchers at the city-based atomic minerals directorate have also noticed rare earth elements such as Niobium along with iron, uranium and thorium in sediments of Pakhal basin in Warangal district. AMD explorers have said in their research study that the Pakhal basin deposits were similar to the rare earth elements found in China. An analysis of the Pakhal quartzite shows high iron content (22 per cent ferrous oxide) with good concentration of Titanium (3.34 per cent titanium oxide) and phosphorous (2.69 per cent in the form of phosphorus pentaoxide). It also revealed uranium concentration of 0.022 per cent (triuranium octaoxide) and 0.31 per cent thorium dioxide. The AMD team comprising U.P. Sharma, K. Umamaheswara and Mr Himadri Basu have presented details of the uranium find at the Satyavedu Formation of Upper Gondwana sediments of Palar Basin in Chittoor district.