Norwood could get a new neighbor: a uranium mill outside of Naturita to process all of the uranium ore that is being mined in and around San Miguel County.
Energy Fuels, Inc. is in the early stages of permitting its Piñon Ridge Mill to process up to 1,000 tons of uranium ore, as well as vanadium, per day. It would be the first uranium processing facility to be constructed in the U.S. in 25 years.
The recent shutdown of a uranium mill in Cañon City, owned by the Cotter Corporation, followed a string of violations, complaints and fines associated with its activities. Most recently the mill was fined for contaminating water that poisoned migrating birds.
The new operators are anxious to distance themselves with the historic problems associated with the Cotter mill and the toxic Superfund site created by the mill at Uravan decades ago, which is still being reclaimed. Energy Fuels is hosting two informational sessions for the public in Naturita and in Montrose. The Naturita Open House is slated on Tuesday, March 25, from 7-9 p.m., at the Naturita Community Building located at 411 W. 2nd Avenue in Naturita. The Montrose Open house is scheduled on Wednesday March 26, from 6-8 p.m., at the Montrose Pavilion located at 1800 Pavilion Drive in Montrose.
Like the former facilities in Cañon City and Uravan, the Piñon Ridge mill will process uranium into a more concentrated form called yellowcake. According to Energy Fuels representative Curtis Moore, the new mill will be more safe than its predecessors.
“There have been major improvements in the technology, since the last facility was constructed 25 years ago,” said Moore.
The facility requires permits from the Colorado Department of Health and the Environment and from Montrose County, but Moore said it would also fall under the jurisdiction of some federal entities.
“There’s a whole litany of governing bodies,” said Moore.
The facility will also come under the scrutiny of local environmental groups the Western Colorado Congress and the Sheep Mountain Alliance. SMA’s Executive Director Hilary White said that the organizations are also closely following two state bills, HB 08-1165 and HB 08-1161, that seek to protect communities and water supplies from the vagaries of uranium mining and mining reclamation activities. Additionally the groups are following the status of federal legislation to revamp the archaic 1872 mining law that still governs mining activities. Now, the groups will also have to focus on the uranium milling in addition to the mining and reclamation in the region.
“It’s something that’s happening, and happening fast with the increasing prices of uranium,” said White. “It’s a big concern. We really need to protect ourselves and protect our environment, which is what most of us base our livelihoods on.”
The price of uranium has jogged skyward in recent years, from less than $25 per pound until 2005, to a high of more than $125 per pound in 2007, and back to $75 per pound in 2008. Uranium is not traded on the open market, but in privately negotiated contracts that are noted as “spot prices.”
The prices have fueled a uranium mining boom that has resulted in a spate of mining permits being pulled in and around San Miguel County — thousands over the past couple of years, according to the Bureau of Land Management. Currently there are just four mines that are producing uranium ore. All four are owned by Denison Mines Corporation and operate in San Miguel County.
Even more lands are being opened to prospectors, however — the Department of Energy recently announced that it is opening 25,000 acres of federally-owned leases for auction. The BLM is the surface owner of these tracts, but the mineral rights belong to the department. Thirteen leases have been retained by their former lessees, Cotter Corporation and Denison Mines, and an additional 19 leases will be up for bid.
The DOE had long held on to these leases so there would be a domestic source of uranium for munitions production, according to the department’s spokesperson Bob Darr. He said that they were given up for auction again in the 70s, but because of the DOE’s stockpile of uranium, the lessees were not able to make the leases financially viable and let go of them in the 90s. But now, with the surging prices, the leases are once again a commodity.
“It would be a benefit to the government, financially,” said Darr. He said the winning bidders of the DOE leases, many of which have been explored initially to determine the presence of uranium ore, are those who promise the government the highest percentage of their take in royalties.
Darr said that unlike gas drilling, uranium mining does not have a dedicated revenue stream to benefit local municipalities, school districts, or road departments to mitigate for the impacts of the activities; and there is no legal requirement for the mining companies to provide a bond to assure that the sites will be reclaimed.