Beijing plans to double domestic output of uranium oxide in the next five years to help plug a fast-growing supply gap for the nuclear power plant fuel.
It is estimated the mainland will have to import almost 80 per cent of its uranium fuel needs by 2050, up from 40 per cent in 2015, according to Li Youlian, director of State Geology and Minerals Bureau. It was largely self-sufficient a few years ago.
Beijing also wants domestic nuclear power firms and uranium miners to take advantage of depressed values of uranium assets in the wake of Japan's nuclear power disaster, to invest abroad where there are more low-cost resources.
It is adopting the two-pronged approach to ensure the mainland's nuclear power expansion programme - the world's largest - will be backed by sufficient fuel.
'The target for the five years to 2015 is to add newly proved domestic uranium resources by 100,000 tonnes, and for output to double from the previous five years,' Li told the China Nuclear Power Leadership Summit.
China is the world's 10th-largest uranium oxide producer. Its estimated output last year was 850 tonnes, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
It was estimated to have about 170,000 tonnes of proved resources in 2009, or 3 per cent of the world's total. Only material that can be recovered at US$130 or less a kilogram is counted.