Iran mines uranium for nuclear fuel

Iran says it has mined its own uranium for the first time, allowing it to bypass a United Nations ban on importing the material.

The uranium ore was collected from the Gachin mine in southern Iran and delivered to a processing plant in the central city of Isfahan, Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said Sunday.

Salehi said the development means the country has gained self-sufficiency over the entire nuclear fuel cycle — from extracting uranium ore to enriching it and producing nuclear fuel.

The announcement comes a day before Iranian officials were to meet in Geneva with delegates from six world powers to discuss Iran's nuclear program. The two days of talks will involve the European Union, the United States, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany.

Salehi, who is also the vice-president of Iran, said the news that the country has domestically produced uranium concentrate powder, known as yellowcake, delivers a message to those meeting in Geneva on Monday and Tuesday that there is no stopping Iran's nuclear work.

Iran is under four sets of UN Security Council sanctions that forbid the supply of nuclear materials to Tehran.

In 2009, Western nations claimed Iran was running out of raw uranium obtained from other countries for its nuclear program. Tehran issued denials but in recent years sought to extract uranium from its own deposits.

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 obtained from China long before the UN sanctions.