Figure 17: Uranium occurrence and production centres in India

Indian interest in thorium is motivated by their substantial reserves. Department of Atomic Energy has established the presence of 10.70 million tonnes of Monazite ore, found in beach and river sand in the country, which contains 9,63,000 tonnes of Thorium Oxide (ThO2) in 2009. India Monazite contains about 9-10% of ThO2 and about 8,46,477 tonnes of thorium Metal can be obtained from 9,63,000 tonnes. In 2013, total Monazite reserves are estimated to be 11.93 million tonnes. Following is the state wise distribution:

Thorium is mainly obtained from monazite and ilmenite in the beach sands along the coast of Kerala and Tamil Nadu (figure 18). World’s richest monazite deposits occur in Palakkad and Kollam districts of Kerala, near Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Mahanadi river delta in Odisha.