The heart of the uranium boom

The La Sal Mountains in Utah frame a view of Paradox Valley, located northwest of Durango. A new uranium mill in Paradox would centralize much of the world’s uranium processing in the Four Corners region, joining the White Mesa Mill in Blanding, Utah, as well as a new mill planned for Grants, N.M./Photo by Amy Levek

By Amy Levek, The Durango Telegraph, Volume 9, No. 27, July 8, 2010

Two new uranium mills proposed for the Four Corners

The Piñon Ridge Mill will be the most environmentally friendly mill in the world,” says Energy Fuels Inc. president and CEO George Glasier of his company’s project. Energy Fuels Inc. is currently planning the construction of the nation’s first uranium/vanadium mill in 25 years. Located west of Naturita in the Paradox Valley, halfway between the Dolores and San Miguel rivers, on 1,000 acres of privately owned land, the mill is the first significant industry to arise in the area in some time.

Given its economically depressed nature, “the area generally wants the mill,” according to Glasier.

Nucla Mayor Roxy Allex agrees. “Almost everyone here was here when uranium mining was happening, and when the industry went away, the jobs went away. The response from citizens has been favorable. People definitely know what’s proposed. It’s the subject everywhere you go on the streets around here.”

With a serious unemployment problem, the town of Nucla stands to gain up to 350 new jobs, with about 250 of those to be permanent positions at the mill. “That’s a big influx for a town of 735,” declares Mayor Allex.

But others in the region are not as enthusiastic. The Colorado Environmental Council (CEC) has the burgeoning uranium industry squarely on its radar and sees uranium mining compounding the boom in oil and gas activities.

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In the sacrifice zone

Earth First! shakes up the Durango conservation scene

by Amy Donahue, The Durango Telegraph, 9/3/09

Well before Ed Abbey put the sands of Utah on the map, the Southwest has been a magnet for outdoor enthusiasts and wilderness aficionados willing to fight for the places they love. However, the very richness of the natural resources that bring these nature-lovers to the Four Corners also brings those interested in resource extraction. Thus, it often is a place of conflicting concerns and priorities.

“The Southwest is a designated national sacrifice area, and as the nation begins to look deeper for energy sources, we will be the focus of the onslaught in the coming decades,” said Nathan Coe, who recently co-founded a Durango chapter of Earth First! “We’re going to get hit harder and harder for things like oil and gas extraction, shale oil, uranium and infrastructure. These are all issues that mainstream groups have fought for years and have effectively stalled, but the projects are still moving forward.”

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Coe and fellow Durangoan Travis Custer attended an Earth First! conference in Tucson in February. Along with attendees from Grand Junction and Denver, the two decided to revitalize an EF! presence in Colorado under the name High Country Earth First!. The Denver chapter already has begun campaigns against the expansion of I-70, but the chapter here is still in the developmental stages. Custer said that before a Durango chapter of EF! can establish itself, it is important to look at how the group may fit in with the already-strong activism here.