SOME 2.5 tons of natural uranium stored in a site in war-torn Libya went missing, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said today – though they were reportedly located three miles away from their original site some hours later.

Natural uranium cannot immediately be used for energy production or bomb fuel, as the enrichment process typically requires the metal to be converted into a gas, then later spun in centrifuges to reach the levels needed.

But, each ton of natural uranium, if obtained by a group with the technological means and resources, can be refined to 12 pounds of weapons-grade material over time and makes finding the missing metal important for non-proliferation experts.

In a statement, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, had informed member states on Wednesday about the missing uranium.

The IAEA says fighting between rival groups in the still-volatile country has left it struggling to gain regular access to carry out routine inspections. Libya has been at war since Britain, France and the United States intervened to overthrow Colonel Gadaffi in 2011, and weapons from the country have flooded northern Africa since, being traded to terrorist groups active across the Sahel who have fought long-running wars against French troops.

On Tuesday, “agency safeguards inspectors found that 10 drums containing approximately 2.5 tons of natural uranium in the form of uranium ore concentrate were not present as previously declared at a location in the state of Libya,” the IAEA said.

Under Gadaffi, thousands of barrels of so-called yellowcake uranium were in storage for a once-planned uranium conversion facility that was never built in a secret weapons programme.

Gadaffi renounced his nuclear weapons programme in 2003.

Estimates put the Libyan stockpile under Gadaffi at some 1,000 metric tons of yellowcake uranium.

While inspectors removed the last of the enriched uranium from Libya in 2009, the yellowcake remained behind, with the UN in 2013 estimating some 6,400 barrels.

US officials claimed Iran could try to purchase the uranium from Libya, something Gadaffi’s top civilian nuclear official tried to reassure the US about, according to a 2009 diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks.

“Stressing that Libya viewed the question as primarily a commercial one, (the official) noted that prices for uranium yellowcake on the world market had been increasing, and that Libya wanted to maximise its profit by properly timing the sale of its stockpile,” then-US ambassador Gene A Cretz wrote.