Product
Specification, content and packing
The concentrate is milled from shallow high-grade ore in the western uplands and from the moor workings at Torvena. It leaves the mill as a dried powder, drummed and sealed, and is traded against the specification below. Uranium content is what the buyer pays for, and every other substance in the drum is either tolerated within a limit or deducted from the price.
Standard specification
Impurities and the penalty schedule
Every lot is sampled at the mill, with the buyer's surveyor present throughout. The sample is divided into three identical parts: one goes to the mill's own laboratory, one to a laboratory the buyer chooses, and the third is sealed and stored untouched.
The two laboratories work separately, and each reports how much uranium the concentrate holds and how much of each impurity. Where the two sets of figures fall within the tolerance the contract allows, the price is settled on their average.
Where the figures fall outside that tolerance, the sealed third part is opened and sent to a further laboratory, one chosen by both parties and written into the contract before the cargo left the mill. Its measurement becomes the figure the price is settled on, and it binds seller and buyer alike, whichever side it happens to favour.
| Element | Limit | Rejection | Deduction above the limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boron equivalent | 4 ppm | 10 ppm | Rises with the excess |
| Molybdenum | 0.10% | 0.30% | Rises with the excess |
| Phosphorus | 0.10% | 0.35% | Rises with the excess |
| Fluoride | 0.10% | 0.25% | Rises with the excess |
| Sulphur | 1.00% | 4.00% | Flat, per tonne |
| Thorium | 1,000 ppm | 2,500 ppm | Flat, per tonne |
| Rare earth total | 0.10% | 0.50% | Flat, per tonne |
Thorium and the rare earths matter more on this route than on most. The monazite sands at Ravelluri are worked for those elements, and separate handling at the mill keeps the two streams apart. Material above the rejection figure goes back to the mill at the seller's cost, and ownership never passes.
Weighing, sampling and certification
| Step | Where | Who | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drumming and sealing | Ferrista mill | Mill cooperative | Drum numbers, seal numbers |
| Gross and tare weighing | Ferrista mill | Mill, buyer's surveyor present | Weight note per drum |
| Sampling | Ferrista mill | Mill and surveyor jointly | Three splits: mill, buyer, umpire |
| Testing | Mill laboratory and the laboratory the buyer names | Both, independently | Certificate of content |
| Radiological survey | Ferrista and Lindoma | Public establishment for radiological protection | Contamination and dose-rate record |
| Safeguards declaration | Lindoma | Republic authority, before loading | Inventory change report |
| Loading | Lindoma | Port cooperative | Mate's receipt, bill of lading |
End use
Concentrate is sold to converters and utilities for civil power only, against an end-use undertaking that binds the buyer and any onward purchaser. The Republic prohibits the export of a weapon, a component of a weapon, and any technique of surveillance or coercion, to any state and to any buyer.
Maasdelta declines any counterparty that will not respect the conditions.
Price
Term contracts settle against the published long-term reference price for U3O8 at the month of delivery, adjusted for the uranium content shown on the certificate and reduced by the deductions above.
The price paid to the export cooperative and the price obtained from the converter are both reported to the Audit Office, which publishes the margin taken on this route in aggregate each year.