Strong uranium prices combined with America’s renewed enthusiasm for nuclear power are attracting Canadian uranium miners and explorers to the Western U.S.
Wyoming, Utah and Colorado in particular have a tradition of uranium mining and extraction techniques that may allow companies to fast-track projects that in Canada would require several years to permit.
“One of the things we decided to look at when we were acquiring properties was the permitting time,” says Ran Davidson, manager of corporate communications for
Although Energy Metals (formerly Clan Resources) is a relative newcomer to the uranium business, the company has moved swiftly to tie up key ground in the Great Divide, based on Union Carbide’s database of U.S. uranium exploration. Since last summer, the company has staked or acquired 272 sq. km containing 68.8 million tonnes of historical U3O8 resources in the area.
Energy Metals also holds properties with historical resources in Utah and Oregon, as well as mineralized breccia pipes in the Arizona. The company’s next step is to bring the historical data up to the standards of National Instrument 43-101, then launch a scoping study to determine the procedure necessary to advance these projects to production using in situ leaching (ISL) techniques.
Toward this end, Energy Metals has compiled a technical management team that includes: Operations and Production Manager Harry Anthony, who has been working with ISL technology for 30 years; Technical and Regulatory Affairs Manager John Hamrick, a 20-year veteran of Umetco and Union Carbide with specific expertise in environmental issues, safety, permitting and regulatory compliance; and Permitting and Reclamation Manager Curt Sealy, who worked alongside Hamrick in waste management and mine reclamation.
Other Toronto-listed companies active in the area include:
Indeed, Canadian companies, with their keen eye for an opportunity and access to equity capital, appear to be more active in the region than their American counterparts. “Much of the exploration and land acquisition for developing new reserves to drive possible mining in the U.S. over the past few years has been conducted by Canadian companies, while American companies continue to slumber,” states the energy minerals division of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists in a recent report on the uranium industry.
Last year, for the first time since 1998, the U.S. uranium industry showed an increase in activity. Total U.S. uranium concentrate production was 2.3 million lbs. up 14% from 2003, while US$86.9 million was spent on exploration, production, and reclamation.
Commodity fundamentals are fueling the rush. Uranium prices have more than doubled to US$29 per lb., from US$14 in January 2004, on expectations reactors being built in China, India and Russia will deplete inventories and exacerbate the current supply shortage.
The U.S. also plans to build a new generation of nuclear power plants as a key component of a strategy to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign energy sources. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects to receive at least five applications for nuclear plant construction and operation by the end of the decade, according to Reuters.
And by 2020, the energy industry is aiming to add 50,000 MW (438 billion kW hours per year) of nuclear generating capacity, enough to serve 38 million homes. Current production stands at 780 billion kW hours of electricity per year, or about 20% of all electricity generated in the U.S.
If they get the green light, these new operations would be the first nuclear power facilities to be commissioned in the U.S. since the 1970s, when the accident at the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania soured public opinion toward nuclear energy.
Attitudes appear to have changed. According to the latest public opinion survey conducted for the Nuclear Energy Institute, a record 70% of Americans favour the use of nuclear energy as a means of generating electricity.
But not everyone is welcoming the resurgence of uranium as a fuel source. In April, anticipating a new wave of development, the Navajo Nation banned uranium mining and processing on their lands. Navajo land encompasses uranium-rich parts of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. Several Navajo miners died as a result of exposure to radioactivity when they mined uranium ore for the U.S. atomic weapons program in the mid-1900s.
Most of the uranium mines in the U.S. now use ISL methods because they are the best alternative for the type of low-grade, permeable sandstone deposits that constitute most of the remaining uranium resources in the country. These deposits form when uranium minerals dissolved in groundwater precipitate on individual sand grains when oxygen content falls.
ISL is essentially a high-speed reversal of this ore genesis: fluids containing small amounts of oxygen and carbon dioxide are injected into the deposit to dissolve the uranium. The uranium-bearing solution is then pumped back to the surface. Most of the uranium is recovered during the first six months of operation, and the life of an individual well field is usually less than three years.
This technique is considered more economical and environmentally safe than hard-rock mining because miners are not directly exposed to the orebody and there is no solid waste; nor is there a need for expensive infrastructure.
However, uranium-bearing solution can seep into groundwater. To minimize this risk, operators install monitor wells around the target zones to ensure that the fluids do not migrate outside the permitted mining area.
If the Bush administration is successful in its bid for more nuclear-generating capacity, the U.S. will need new sources of uranium ore to feed its reactors. Energy Metals and others joining the rush to the western U.S. are betting that the superpower would prefer to develop those sources in its own backyard.
— The author is a Toronto-based geologist and freelance writer specializing in mining and the environment. She may be reached at heffernan@geopen.com
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