India, May 18 -- Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL), a public sector company under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), will set up a recovery plant in Jharkhand to extract uranium from tailings of state-owned Hindustan Copper, a top official said on Sunday.

The move would help in augmenting domestic supplies of the strategic mineral used in nuclear power and defence applications.

In an interview with PTI, Hindustan Copper Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Sanjiv Kumar Singh said that the copper PSU has reached an understanding with UCIL under which tailings will be handed over to the Uranium Corporation of India to extract uranium.

Copper tailings are finely ground waste rock and water that remain after copper minerals are e...