The economically significant deposits – iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) usually contains elevated amount of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), which hinders the utilization of IOCG deposits and leads to the waste of resources on site due to the presence of these radionuclides. Herein, a new fine grinding – H2SO4 leach method was used to efficiently dissolve and liberate long-life radionuclides (238U, 230Th, 226Ra, 210Pb, 210Po) from uranium-bearing NORM that are finely disseminated in the major economical minerals. The fine grinding treatment reduced the average particle sizes, interrupted the mineral textures and partially dissolved uranium minerals, thereby liberating them onto the newly formed secondary copper phases. The following H2SO4 leach changed the chemical and phase compositions by dissolving non-copper elements where the locked 238U and 230Th were largely removed close to the safe activity (1 Bq/g) and 226Ra, 210Pb, 210Po were mobilized onto the copper mineral surfaces. For the first time, the quantitative correlations between radionuclide species and major mineral phases were built by QXRD and radionuclide analysis. Such quantification methodology of radionuclide deportment can be applied in the processing a broad range of NORM-bearing resources, providing a crucial guidance in radionuclide management for environmental and process engineers.