US senators, congressmen, mining companies and nuclear industry representatives have criticised a final decision to ban new uranium mining on land near the Grand Canyon for the next 20 years.

Rio Tinto has taken up some 93.76% of the common shares of Canadian uranium exploration company Hathor and will now purchase all the remaining shares through a compulsory acquisition under Canadian law. London-based Rio Tinto's announcement marks the beginning of the end of an acquisition battle which saw Hathor shareholders reject an unsolicited bid from Canadian uranium mining company Cameco in favour of Rio Tinto's offer. The acquisition will add Hathor's Athabasca Basin exploration properties in northern Saskatchewan, including the Roughrider deposit with an estimated 17.2 million pounds U₃O₈ (6600 tU) in indicated resources and 40.7 million pounds U₃O₈ (15,650 tU) in inferred resources, to Rio's existing Canadian non-uranium mining and manufacturing interests.

Korea Resources Corporation has agreed to invest $3.5 million over two years for a 50% stake in the Mkuju South uranium project in Tanzania.

Uranium Energy Corp has now obtained all the permits needed to proceed with development of its Goliad in-situ leach uranium project in South Texas.

International best practice could help the state of Virginia to overcome "steep hurdles" if a 30-year moratorium on uranium mining is lifted, a major independent study has concluded.

All uranium ore extracted at Canada's forthcoming Cigar Lake mine will be processed and packaged at the McClean Lake mill under an agreement finalized by the partners in the mine project and the owners of the mill. Prior to the announcement of the agreement in October 2011, plans saw work being split between mills at McClean Lake and Rabbit Lake on a toll basis. Cigar Lake is being developed by Cameco (50%), Areva (37%), Idemitsu (8%) and Tepco (5%). The mine is expected to begin production in mid-2013 and will eventually increase its production capacity to 6900 tonnes of uranium per year. The McClean Lake mill is owned by Areva (70%), Denison (22.5%) and Japan's Overseas Uranium Resource Development Company (7.5%). According to Areva, McClean Lake is the only mill capable of processing high-grade uranium ore without diluting it. Cameco said its Rabbit Lake mill will continue to process ore mined at that site, but would have flexibility to process ore from other sources. The company expects the new milling arrangement will reduce the average operating cost of the Cigar Lake project from C$23.14 ($22.39) per pound to about C$18.60 ($18.00) per pound. Areva plans to invest almost C$150 million ($145 million) to upgrade the McClean Lake mill and increasing its capacity to over 8500 tonnes U₃O₈ per year.

Third quarter figures from Uranium One include output from the Honeymoon in-situ leach operation in Australia for the first time.