US speeds up mining as uranium prices rise

Energy Fuels, the largest U.S. producer of uranium, is increasing production as global uncertainty and rising demand push up prices for the nuclear material.

The largest uranium producer in the US is ramping up operations at the Pinyon Plain Mine in Arizona, near the South Rim entrance of Grand Canyon National Park. The project has long been controversial and largely dormant since the 1980s. It was recently restarted as uranium prices soared.

The mine covers 6.8 hectares and will operate for three to six years, producing at least 2 million pounds (about 907,000 kg) of uranium - enough to power the state of Arizona for at least a year, according to Energy Fuels spokesman Curtis Moore.

“As the global outlook for clean, carbon-free nuclear energy grows and the US moves away from Russian uranium supplies, demand for domestic uranium is growing,” Moore said.

Earlier this year, the spot price of uranium concentrate, used in nuclear power generation, hit a 16-year high of $92.45 per pound, up more than 200% from the end of 2020. Analysts from Bank of America and Berenberg Bank predict the uranium market will get hotter, possibly pushing prices above $100.

Bank of America said the tightening in the uranium market could last until 2025, suggesting prices could rise even higher this year. It increased its spot uranium price target to $105 per pound in 2024 and $115 next year.

Demand for uranium is surging, with contracts signed by power companies reaching $202 million last year, the highest value since 2012, according to uranium market data firm UxC. “The uranium market is getting tighter,” Jonathan Hinze, president of UxC, told the Wall Street Journal.

A shaft tower at the Pinyon Plain Mine uranium mine on January 31. Photo: AP

Energy Fuels is also preparing to open two more mines in Colorado and Wyoming, which have produced about two-thirds of the U.S. uranium over the past five years. In 2022, the company has a contract to sell $18.5 million worth of uranium concentrate to the U.S. government to create a national strategic reserve in case of outside supply disruptions.

The United States and dozens of other countries have pledged to triple global nuclear power capacity to combat climate change. It has offered incentives for the development of the next generation of nuclear reactors, along with policies to reduce Russian influence in the nuclear supply chain, paving the way for domestic uranium to remain a key commodity for decades to come.

The Trump administration’s Commerce Department issued a report describing domestic uranium production as essential to national security, maintaining nuclear weapons and operating power plants. At the time, commercial nuclear reactors provided nearly 20% of the electricity consumed in the United States.

The Biden administration maintains that view. It is in the midst of a multibillion-dollar modernization of the nation’s nuclear defenses. The US Department of Energy this week offered Michigan power plant owners $1.5 billion in loans to restart shuttered facilities.

But as the government pursues nuclear power potential, environmentalists and Native American leaders remain concerned about the environmental consequences for communities near mining sites. They are calling for better oversight.

Tribal communities in the American West have lost faith in uranium companies and the federal government because of abandoned mines and related pollution that has yet to be fully addressed, according to the AP .

In 1979, more than 93 million gallons (350 million liters) of radioactive sludge and acid spilled from a tailings pond at the Navajo Mine complex, contaminating water supplies, livestock, and downstream communities. It was three times the amount of radiation released from the Three Mile Island (Pennsylvania) incident just three months earlier.

There is bipartisan support for nuclear power in Congress , but some lawmakers from affected communities remain concerned. At a congressional hearing in January, Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush said the expansion of nuclear power in the United States cannot be achieved without addressing the impact of nuclear waste on minority communities.

For the Pinyon Plain Mine, the U.S. Forest Service reaffirmed an environmental impact statement that had been prepared for several years. State regulators approved air and aquifer protection permits within the past two years.

The area’s geological formation provides a natural defense against water escaping from the site as the falls move toward the Grand Canyon, according to authorities. Moore said the aquifers in the area that feed springs at the bottom of the Grand Canyon are very deep – about 1,000 feet (304 meters) below the mine – and are separated by nearly impenetrable rock.

“We work extremely hard to carry out our work to the highest standards. What we do is backed by science and regulators,” he said.

Phien An ( according to AP, OilPrice )

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