Yellowcake concentrates are prepared by various extraction and refining methods, depending on the types of ores.

It is first crushed to a fine powder by passing it through crushers and grinders to produce "pulped" ore.

However, nearly half of yellowcake production is now produced by in situ leaching in which the solution is pumped through the uranium deposit without disturbing the ground.

[2][3] Initially, the compounds formed in yellowcakes were not identified; in 1970, the U.S. Bureau of Mines still referred to yellowcakes as the final precipitate formed in the milling process and considered it to be ammonium diuranate or sodium diuranate.

With further processing, one obtains highly enriched uranium, containing 20% or more U-235, that is suitable for use in compact nuclear reactors—usually used to power naval warships and submarines.