If and when Energy Fuels builds its uranium mill in Paradox Valley, they will have plenty of ore to process.
The corporation was officially awarded four Department of Energy uranium mining leases, 6,600 acres between Gateway and Egnar, in Colorado. Energy Fuels now has a total of 48,000 acres for uranium mining. The company is also about to join the elite ranks of the few uranium mines in the state that are currently producing ore. Energy Fuels’ Whirlwind Mine, in Mesa County and about 60 miles from the proposed mill, is on the verge of readiness.
“We’re nearing completion of rehabilitation so that it’s safe to use … we’re nearly finished,” said Richard White, the vice president of exploration for Energy Fuels. “Our next step will be development. We’ll be driving tunnels to get to the known ore bodies. They’ll be a small amount of production, but we’re not going into full production.”
White said that before the mining operation goes full bore, they will need to drill through to a second mine to provide a secondary escape for miners — a safety requirement of all such mines. There is also the matter of the mill; until the company gets its mill licensed, permitted and built, there will be no place for the ore to go and stockpiling it safely requires liners to buffer the land and other precautions.
“Right now, we’re still planning on milling at our own facility once we get that built,” said White.
There is just one other uranium processing mill in the country that is operating. That mill in Blanding, Utah is owned by Energy Fuels rival Denison Mines. Currently Denison has the only three mines in Colorado that are officially producing ore, all three of which are in our own San Miguel County, but word around the industry is that there are two other mines, the Last Chance Mine owned by Nuvemco and the Jay Bird Mine owned by Blue Rock Energy, both in Montrose County, that are also starting to produce ore. Those reports could not be confirmed by press time.
“Right now, Denison’s kind of in the driver’s seat,” said Tony Waldron, the senior environmental protection specialist for the state’s mining and reclamation division. “The milling is definitely one of the hold-ups at this point. They have the mill. Other companies don’t have that.”
Which is to say, that if a new mill is built, the Southwest could start to see and feel the impacts of the uranium boom that for now is still beneath the surface. Waldron said that
as of July 22, there are now 33 permitted and active uranium mines in Colorado, most of which are waiting to produce. There are also wildly increasing numbers of mining claims and leases — Ron Cattany, the director of the Colorado Division of Mining and Reclamation, said that last year alone there were over 10,000 mining claims filed on Bureau of Land Management land statewide, compared with a couple hundred claims the year before.
“It’s absolutely a boom,” said Cattany. “Over the last two years, there’s been a definite increase.”
The lack of processing facilities or uranium mills is just one logjam — the permitting process is arduous, especially after legislation passed last year heightened the restrictions on mining operations. Last year’s House Bill 1161 also made the permitting process four or five times more expensive, said White. All mines must be permitted as “designated mines,” meaning that no toxic-forming or acid materials are being used or exposed on the surface. Those permits are more costly, and require environmental plans and more inspections, according to White.
All of those thousands of mining claims, and the 16 DOE leases that were awarded this month, will still be slowed down by the permitting process. Most of the claims will be aggregated, said Cattany, before they seek permits from his office.
Despite all the industry speculation and the wild fluctuations in the price of uranium — from an anomalous peak of $135 per pound last year, to a steady increase this month from $57 per pound to $64 per pound — the opposition to the Paradox mill is already fomenting. At least one group, www.savingparadox.org, has a web site and a photo contest to help raise awareness about the environmental impacts of such a mill. 
~D. Dion