Jamshedpur : After issuance of stoppage of mining activity orders to several iron ore mines in the state, including that of Tata Steel and SAIL, the Jharkhand mining and geology department has now issued suspension of mining activity order to Uranium Corporation of India’s (UCIL) best-ore Jadugoda mine, 20 km from here, as its second lease renewal had not taken place. The closure notice for Jadugoda, UCIL’s oldest with the best grade ore in the region, came into effect on Saturday. The closure affects around 1,000 workmen directly while thousands others earning their livelihood in Jadugoda township would be affected indirectly. Spread around Jadugoda township, 20 km from here, UCIL has seven working mines and two processing plants, the processing units being the PSU’s only ones in the country which transform uranium ore into magnesium diuranate, commonly known as yellow cake, which contains 70-74% uranium, which is shipped once a month by road under special security cover to the Nuclear Fuel Complex at Hyderabad for getting uranium sticks which go into nuclear power plants as fuel. The 1,312-acre Jadugoda mine, up for a second lease renewal since September 2006 when it was applied for by the corporation after the first 20-year lease expired in October 1987, contributes around one-fourth of UCIL’s total magnesium diuranate production at all its mines here. Asked what the closure of its oldest Jadugoda mine meant, UCIL chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) D Acharya, speaking exclusively to FE on Monday, said: “It has a huge impact on the corporation; Jadugoda has the best grade and other chemical properties so far as UCIL’s operating mines (in the country) are concerned”. He said the corporation has set up an internal team, with personnel also taken from its lease and environment departments, which is currently going through papers, examining cross-references and documents already submitted with Jharkhand’s mining and geology department. “It is a longish work. We will be able to decide on our next course of action once we get the internal team’s report. We will then try to address whatever is under our control”, said the CMD, adding that the corporation already has the Atomic Minerals directorate clearance for renewal of the mine lease. UCIL, which commenced its operations in the country in Jharkhand in 1967 with its Jadugoda mine, today has Bagjata, Bhatin, Narwapahar, Turamdih and Mohuldih as its other underground mines in the region, with the seventh Banduhurang being the country’s first open-cast uranium mine. With no new mines on the drawing board in Jharkhand after Mohuldih, the corporation is keenly focused on extending the life of its existing mines in the state.