Editor’s Note: As we’ve been reporting periodically this year in Colorado Energy News, the once dormant uranium mining industry is gathering renewed interest from one end of Colorado to the other. In Weld County, opposition to Powertech’s proposal for a uranium mine includes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as one of its targets; while on the West Slope, Energy Fuels Inc., a publicly traded Canadian company, is burrowing into the red bluffs and canyons of western Colorado and eastern Utah to dig out uranium and start the process of generating electricity.  We’ve excerpted a couple of recent articles below that provide some timely insight into the uranium mining issue. The first authored by Gary Harmon of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel digs deep into the history of the industry on the West Slope, and how current market conditions are fueling a Canadian company’s pursuit. The second excerpt is from a story this month by the AP’s Judith Kohler which reports on the environmental opposition to the Weld County mine proposal. Activits say the EPA is violating laws requiring public input by working behind closed doors to draft regulations for the operation, and cite agency documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Companies Push Uranium Mining in Region

The uranium industry was born on the west end of Energy Alley, the run from Green River, Utah, to Rifle. It has burst into bloom and sputtered to obscurity more than once.

Like the half-lives by which radiation is judged to decay, though, the industry never has died. Two companies are burrowing into the red bluffs and canyons of western Colorado and eastern Utah to dig out uranium and start the process of generating electricity.

Although the history of the uranium industry in the region goes back to Madame Curie and her discoveries in the late 19th century, the supply is far from played out. Miners dug out about 250 million pounds of uranium for the World II and Cold War efforts, said George Glasier, president and CEO of Energy Fuels Inc., a Canadian, publicly traded company.

“We got the easy stuff the first time,” Glasier said. Now, determinations of how much uranium is available depend on its value.

“I believe there are 125 million pounds in this immediate area” that can be produced for $45 a pound, Glasier said. “If it goes to $100 (a pound,) we’ve got 300 million or 400 million.” One estimate for a small portion of land in the Uravan Mineral Belt, 31 tracts, is the those lands being leased out by the U.S. Department of Energy contain 130 million pounds of uranium.

The United States now consumes about 50 million pounds of uranium oxide a year, said Glenn McGrath of the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Though less optimistic about the size of the resource than Glasier, McGrath said the United States will have to turn more and more inward as it looks for secure sources of nuclear energy.

Several factors weigh in on the market value and importance of uranium that reaches the outside world via western Colorado’s Energy Alley. Much of the uranium needed for the rods that now fire the plants has come from demilitarized uranium left over from the Cold War, said Jim Burnell, senior minerals geologist for the Colorado Geological Survey.

Two major international suppliers of uranium, meanwhile, are out of commission temporarily and possibly permanently. The Cigar Lake Mine in Canada flooded, and the Olympic Dam Mine in Australia is out of production because of a shaft accident

The Rest of the Story …

Activists Contest EPA actions on proposed mine in Weld County

The Environmental Protection Agency is violating laws requiring public input by working behind closed doors to draft regulations for a proposed uranium mine in northern Colorado, activists said, citing agency documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The EPA said it isn’t violating any laws but is collecting information in anticipation of a permit application from Powertech USA, which wants to mine uranium using technology that injects a solution underground to dissolve and extract the mineral.

Attorney Jeff Parsons of the Western Mining Action Project, which obtained the EPA documents, and Matt Garrington of Environment Colorado say any rules for so-called “in-situ” uranium mining should be devised publicly and on a national level.

“It’s a national precedent they’re setting here,” Parsons said.

Many states have their own regulations for in-situ, or “in place,” uranium mining. Colorado does not. Neither does South Dakota, where Powertech USA, based in suburban Denver, also wants to mine uranium.

The regional EPA office in Denver, which oversees both states, acknowledges in e-mails between the agency and a Powertech consultant that any permits for the projects “will be the first nationally that EPA would issue and directly regulate under a direct implementation program.”

Agency spokesman Richard Mylott said that is why the EPA is talking to Powertech, state officials and others and collecting information about the site, near the town of Nunn, about 70 miles north of Denver.

Mylott insisted the agency work is in anticipation of a permit application and that “no program policy, guidance or rulemaking” is under way. “If Powertech applies for a Class III permit, all relevant data and information will be fully disclosed for full review and comment by the public,” Mylott said. A Class III permit allows injection of fluids in mining.

The Rest of the Story …