TEHRAN, Iran — Iran claimed Sunday it could now use domestically mined uranium to produce nuclear fuel, giving the country complete control over a process the West suspects is geared toward producing weapons.
Iran had been importing it, Salehi said, but is now mining it and processing it within the country.
The United States and its allies fear that Iran is trying to produce a nuclear bomb. Iran denies it.Nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said the uranium ore concentrate, known as yellowcake, was produced at the Gachin uranium mine in southern Iran and delivered to the uranium conversion facility in the central city of Isfahan for reprocessing.
Yellowcake is then taken to the Isfahan facility to be processed into uranium hexaflouride, which later can be turned into a gas used as feedstock for enriching uranium.
Salehi did not provide details on how much yellowcake had been transferred to Isfahan, but said the shipments, for now, would be carried out "continuously." State TV showed a large, covered truck carrying the yellowcake.
The nuclear chief said Iran had for the first time delivered domestically mined raw uranium to a processing facility — allowing it to bypass U.N. sanctions prohibiting import of the material. Four rounds of U.N. sanctions have targeted Iran's uranium enrichment program.
Iran acquired a considerable stock of yellowcake from South Africa in the 1970s under the former U.S.-backed shah's original nuclear program, as well as unspecified quantities of yellowcake obtained from China long before the U.N. sanctions.
Iran announced discoveries of new uranium deposits in 2006 at three sites in the central areas of Khoshoomi, Charchooleh and Narigan.
Saghand's known reserves are estimated at more than 1.7 million tons of medium quality ore. The mine, about 300 miles (480 kilometers) south of Tehran, has a production capacity of 132,000 tons of uranium ore per year. It consists of an open pit with minimal reserves and a deep mine nearby. A lack of funds has reportedly delayed ore extraction at the mine.
"No matter how much effort they put into their sanctions ... our nuclear activities will proceed and they will witness greater achievements in the future," he said in an interview with state-run Press TV after the announcement.
Salehi said the announcement meant Iran would be attending the upcoming talks "with power and authority and that we do not seek favors from any party."
Salehi said the uranium was from a southern Iranian mine called Gachin near the city of Bandar Abbas that is well known to international inspectors. The yellow cake must be further processed at Tehran's uranium conversion facility near the central city of Esfahan before it is refined at Iran's enrichment facility near the town of Natanz.
In 2009, Western nations claimed Iran was running out of raw uranium for its nuclear program. Tehran denied it but in recent years sought to extract uranium from its own deposits.
The United States and some of its allies accuse Iran of using its civil nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has denied the accusation, saying its nuclear program is geared solely toward generating electricity and producing medical isotope to treat patients.
The West, Israel and many Middle Eastern governments suspect Iran plans eventually to build nuclear weapons in violation of its treaty obligations, a charge that Tehran denies. The United Nations Security Council has repeatedly demanded that Iran stop its nuclear-fuel production program.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Iran's uranium enrichment will not be discussed at the Geneva talks, though it is the central concern of the six world powers — the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany — that will be present.
Iran's intelligence minister accused the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency of sending spies in the guise of inspectors to collect information about Iran's nuclear activities, state TV reported Saturday.
The Iranian government has also provided funds to its nuclear agency to begin ore extraction at Saghand, the mine with the largest uranium reserves in the country. Saghand has not yet become operational.
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