European Uranium Mining?

Delta Force

Banned
European countries with a history of Soviet occupation have a disproportionately high contribution to historical world production relative to the stated size of their current reserves, especially Germany. Did they have any economically feasible reserves during their period of occupation, or did the Soviets force them to produce from low grade/uneconomical deposits to help boost output to meet their own demand?

Also, did Germany use any of the material produced in mines in Czechoslovakia for its own nuclear program during World War II? Apparently Czechoslovakia was something like the Baku of uranium mining, developing the technology and techniques and serving as a major early production site.
 
I understand that Belgium had uranium reserves from mines in the Congo, and there were concerns that the Germans would seize it during WWII. That and heavy water from plants in Norway (British special forces attacked a shipment in order to slow down the Nazi bomb effort).
 

Delta Force

Banned
I understand that Belgium had uranium reserves from mines in the Congo, and there were concerns that the Germans would seize it during WWII. That and heavy water from plants in Norway (British special forces attacked a shipment in order to slow down the Nazi bomb effort).

Didn't the Germans acquire a few hundred or thousand tons of ore from the Belgian stockpiles? Apparently it was enough to help jump start the Soviet program.
 
Didn't the Germans acquire a few hundred or thousand tons of ore from the Belgian stockpiles? Apparently it was enough to help jump start the Soviet program.

IIRC from 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb' the nazis found 1,300 tons of unrefined Uranium ore in a Belgian warehouse. There were some small quantities of refined ore, probablly Yellow Cake form, scattered around various European university & chemical companies labs. Exactly what happened to the entire Belgian ore is not clear. A little over 1,000kg of refined ore was taken from a Japan bound submarine that docked in the US when Germany surrendered. The Alsos Mission located 1000+ tons of unrefined Uranium ore in April/May 1945 & imeadiately shipped it back to the US.

Circa 1940 the British intercepted a shipload of unrefined ore headed from the Congo to Belgium. This may have been forwarded to the US later, I'd have to check. Cant remember any other details from The Making of the Atomic Bomb. 'Hitlers Scientists' refers to some German researchers being handicapped by the slow distribution of small quantities of refined or partially refined Uranium. but is not clear it that remark was to cover all persons in atomic research or just some.

From elsewhere I recall a claim that the Curie lab in France retained its stock of Uranium compounds. The Germans asked for a inventory but never seized the stock.

Probablly a lot of holes in my notes, but 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb' seems to be a reliable source.
 
European countries with a history of Soviet occupation have a disproportionately high contribution to historical world production relative to the stated size of their current reserves, especially Germany. Did they have any economically feasible reserves during their period of occupation, or did the Soviets force them to produce from low grade/uneconomical deposits to help boost output to meet their own demand?

I may be totally mistaken about this, but my impression is that the low reserves of European countries has more to do with the political difficulties of mining uranium ore in Europe, rather than an actual absence of the stuff. I may be totally off-base about that, though.
 

Delta Force

Banned
I may be totally mistaken about this, but my impression is that the low reserves of European countries has more to do with the political difficulties of mining uranium ore in Europe, rather than an actual absence of the stuff. I may be totally off-base about that, though.

Europe could have had major reserves and just mined them all out though (or at least the economical reserves), just like what happened with British coal after the 1800s or Japanese mineral reserves after the 1500s (and more recently Indonesian petroleum reserves).
 
I understand that Belgium had uranium reserves from mines in the Congo, and there were concerns that the Germans would seize it during WWII. That and heavy water from plants in Norway (British special forces attacked a shipment in order to slow down the Nazi bomb effort).

Yes that's true, also the Nazi wanted it, the irony is this Belgium Uranium finally arrive at USA and was used to build the first Atomic bombs...

Germany they mining for Uranium-ore in the Ore Mountains between Saxony and Bohemia (until 1990 they mining 216,300 metric Tons uranium)
In end The Third Reich had biggest amount of uranium-oxide in world and could do nothing with it...
why ?
First there around dozen rival group working on Nazi Nuke (even Post service and Herman Göring had one)
Next to that rivalry were sone mistake by "Aryan" scientist who believed you need Tons of enrich Uranium for One Bomb.
They missing "heavy water" thanks to British SAS who destroy the Norwegian factory during WW2
Despite limited success of producing enrich uranium in Berlin (proof by soil sample analyst) those program were abandon.

in same time the refugee european scientist in USA were cooking plutonium...

oh by the way, after WW2 the Soviets reopen the uranium mines in the Ore Mountains for own needs.
 
IIRC from 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb' the nazis found 1,300 tons of unrefined Uranium ore in a Belgian warehouse. There were some small quantities of refined ore, probablly Yellow Cake form, scattered around various European university & chemical companies labs. Exactly what happened to the entire Belgian ore is not clear. A little over 1,000kg of refined ore was taken from a Japan bound submarine that docked in the US when Germany surrendered. The Alsos Mission located 1000+ tons of unrefined Uranium ore in April/May 1945 & imeadiately shipped it back to the US.

I recall reading that the Soviets seized a bunch of uranium from a plant in East Germany despite an unsuccessful attempt by the Western Allies to destroy it via bombing. I'll have to find my copy of Six Months in 1945: From World War to Cold War before I can give you the details, since that's where I saw it...
 
I recall reading that the Soviets seized a bunch of uranium from a plant in East Germany despite an unsuccessful attempt by the Western Allies to destroy it via bombing. I'll have to find my copy of Six Months in 1945: From World War to Cold War before I can give you the details, since that's where I saw it...

Yes this is true, in fact the site was the Uranium Mine in the Ore Mountains of Germany i mention in post #8
 
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