GETTING THE CAKE IN THE CAN

a short United States Uranium History from the Rocky Mountain Scout Viewpoint,

by Robert D. (Bob) Odell,
Uranium Geologist and Minerals Scout, CPG 7327*

The Present State of the Nuclear Resource Industry: the Need

Nuclear power plants early in 1999 numbered 434 throughout 31 countries of the world. The western world alone accounted for 364 reactors, consuming approximately 135 million pounds of U3O8 annually. Worldwide, 36 power plants were under construction in 1998 in 14 countries, according to data supplied to the IAEA. Eighteen countries are relying on nuclear energy to provide at least 25% of the energy for power generation. With reactor shutdowns currently giving way to reactor purchases in the United States, the estimated 10 million pounds U3O8 of additional demand should stimulate the market while deregulation procedures sort themselves out.

To supply the uranium for these power plants, North American production figures for 1998 totaled 34 M (million) pounds U3O8. Of that, Canada provided 28.4 M pounds U3O8 and the U.S. 5.6 M. Cameco, reported 14 M from Key Lake, Rabbit Lake 11.7 M (total 25.7M), Cogema reported 2.7 M from Cluff Lake. United States production (see Table) , totaled 5.6 M pounds, including 3.9 M pounds U3O8 produced by in situ leach (ISL) recovery.

Table 1

USA Production, 1998

In the U.S., ISL Operations dominate today's production picture, currently restricted to Wyoming, Nebraska and South Texas. Three firms produced approximately 2.5 million pounds from the Powder River Basin of Wyoming: Power Resources (owned by Cameco), Cogema and Rio Algom Mining. Cameco in Nebraska through Crow Butte Resources recovered 727,000 pounds. In Texas, uranium recovery activities by Cogema and Uranium Resources dwindled, with all operations in restoration while waiting on the market.

United States Conventional Mining Activities

As of June 30^th, 1999, all underground uranium/vanadium mines on the Colorado Plateau were put on hold, primarily due to low vanadium prices. IUC (International Uranium Corporation) reported underground operations at the Sunday complex of mines were discontinued at the end of June, 1999. US Energy's Jackpot underground mine at Green Mountain, Wyoming has been on hold since July 31, 1998, with the double declines only partially completed. Underground mining in the U.S. continues at the Schwartzwalder mine in Colorado, owned by Cotter Corporation, although the mine is on the sale block. Production there is shipped to the Canon City, Colorado mill, which reopened in April, 1999 with 85 employees.

In the Uravan Mineral Belt of western Colorado and southeastern Utah, International Uranium Corporation (IUC) plans to continue milling conventional ore into October, 1999 at its White Mesa mill in Utah. Rio Algom's Quivera in New Mexico, which is still processing mine water, and Cotter's Canon City, Colorado mill are also active. Three conventional mills are on hold in the U.S.: Kennecott's Sweetwater in Wyoming, US Energy's Shootaring Canyon in Ticaboo, Utah, and the Dawn Mining Co mill in Washington State.

Pre-1900 Historical Highlights

Discovery of the element uranium was made in 1789 by a German chemist, Martin Heinrich Klaproth while assaying pitchblende ore from a German mine. Then in 1841 the first pure uranium was isolated by a French chemist, Eugene Melchior Peligot, naming it for the planet Uranus.

1898 was the banner year for uranium. Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium as a daughter of uranium decay. The same year, the Colorado Rajah mine, located on Roc Creek in Sinbad Valley was reactivated by Tom Dolan. Gordon Kimball shipped the first Morrison formation ore to France, to be followed by Charles Poulot and partners Voilleque and McBride, who built an experimental mill at Slick Rock in 1900. R.C. Coffin reported one shipment of ten tons of ore averaging over 20% U3O8 and 15% vanadium. Madame Curie never visited Colorado but named the ore from the state carnotite, after then French Inspector General of Mines, A. Carnot.

1900-1920

Gathering steam, Standard Chemical (now US Vanadium) in 1915 built the Joe Junior Co. Colorado plant to upgrade carnotite and recover uranium, radium and vanadium, resulting in 1936 the naming of the site, Uravan. New Mexico's first uranium was discovered in northwestern San Juan Basin by John Wade in 1918. The same year, at the Silver Cliff Mine in Lusk, Wyoming, uranium was discovered in copper and silver tailings of an 1880's mine. Milled on site, the concentrate was shipped to Denver over the next 4 years. Some was shipped to Madame Curie (Wissen & Boon, 1985).

1920-1940

By 1923, French researchers produced 202 g of radium from 67,000 tons of ore from the Colorado Plateau. After that date, ore sources were dominated by the Shinkolobwe vein deposit in the Belgian Congo. Colorado Plateau mining ceased in 1924, due to the competitive, lower priced Belgian Congo pitchblende.

In the United States (1934) Vitro Manufacturing Co. contracted with Balsley Mining for uranium ore to be used in the pigment industry, deriving 26 colors, plus extraction of vanadium and radium. That year also saw the use of radium pellets inserted into human tissue in Czechoslovakia to fight cancer. In 1936, at Lost Creek in Sweetwater County, Wyoming schroeckingerite was found by Minnie McCormick, a cook in a nearby sheep camp. (Commercial production there commenced in 1954).

With the perfection of controlled nuclear fission technology in the 1940"s, uranium became important for military uses and power generation. Effort for uranium procurement accelerated in 1941, for the Manhattan Project by the Army Corps of Engineers, concentrating on carnotite deposits within the Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation on the Colorado Plateau. Surface reconnaissance by prospectors with geiger counters led to surface occurrence, followed by intensive examination of all suspect outcrops on the Colorado Plateau with drilling and airborne geophysics by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).

1940-1950

The U.S. government arranged for Metals Reserve Co to stimulate production of vanadium "and other strategic minerals" (6 million pounds of V2O5 through 1944). In December, 1942, only a year after Pearl Harbor, the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction was perfected and controlled by scientist Enrico Fermi, et al in Chicago under the west stands of the Stagg Field stadium. Raw materials for the project were critical. (see W.L. Chenoweth: Raw Materials Activities of the Manhattan Project on the Colorado Plateau: Nonrenewable Resources Vol 6, No.1, 1997)

The 1946 Energy Act by the AEC provided incentives for high grade ore and 1947 saw a great prospecting boom, that resulted in hundreds of small underground mine start-ups. (Chenoweth: Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology, Vol.17, 1992) In 1947, the Vanadium Corporation of America procured its first uranium concentrate for the mill at Naturita, Colorado. U.S. Vanadium (later Union Carbide) also signed a contract for a mill at Rifle, modifying vanadium circuits for uranium recovery with deliveries starting in late 1947. The same year, the Colorado Raw Materials office was established by the AEC in Grand Junction, along with an Exploration Branch.

In 1948, prompted by the Soviet Union building a nuclear arsenal (Larson, 1978), the AEC decision to guarantee a market for 0.10% yellowcake, resulted in a great uranium frenzy. Only the most profitable finds were developed, however, by a few dominant companies. On April 8^th, 1948, the government approved a broad plan to expand uranium production on the Colorado Plateau by providing a mill (by 1949) at Monticello, Utah. Production amounted to almost 54,000 tons of ore at the then-current $7.14 per pound. The United States Geological Survey drilled 130,000 feet of exploration hole footage that year to aid exploration, in addition to 80,000 feet by private industry.

Drilling footage, government and private, totaled 413,000 feet in 1949. Three mills were in operation and 172,000 tons of uranium ore were mined, mostly from underground. The Schwartzwalder mine near Golden, Colorado was discovered. Also, discoveries were made by Homestake Mining Co. in the Black Hills of Crook Cy, Wyoming.

1950-1960

The year 1950 saw mining companies, oil companies and utilities entering the picture with field personnel using "Buck Rogers" scintillometers and air-borne equipment to keep ahead of the competition. Land plays of news-breaking size staked a lot of uranium claims on "dog patch", and geologists followed hot outcrops down dip with drilling rigs. Field geology came into its own!

New Mexico's uranium frenzy caught fire in 1950 when Paddy Martinez, a native American, crawled under a uraniferous Todilto limestone ledge in a rain squall at Haystack Butte in the Grants area for a short nap. Awakening with a real thirst, Paddy cut a bee-line for the Grants bar, which just happened to be occupied by some uranium prospectors comparing geiger counters. Brushing off the yellow dust from his Levi's, Paddy made some instant friends who wanted to know " which direction he'd wandered in from". Soon after, he took samples to the Grants mayor,

Carrol Gunderson who informed the Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Co. that their Section 19, T13N, R10W had ore, putting Santa Fe Pacific in the uranium business. As the story goes, Paddy was named minerals scout for the railroad, a position he held for the rest of his life.

The 1950 Martinez' discovery lead to the Laguna and Ambrosia Lake Districts near Grants. Drilling to deeper horizons in the San Juan Basin followed the discovery of anomalous radiation in bit cuttings from a dry oil well at Ambrosia Lake. Airborne geophysics (hot-shot pilots buzzing vertical cliff faces, with an airsick geologist trying to hold a scintillometer) led to major discoveries in Jurassic age formations. Tree-top skimming Evelyn Kiethley Williams flew over the Anaconda Jackpile site in New Mexico to discover that deposit on November 8, 1951. August of 1955, she lost a wing and her life to a bare pine branch. Her passenger, Holly Uranium geologist Paul Manera, was injured but managed to crawl 5 miles for help.

The first uranium mill in the U.S. designed with byproduct vanadium recovery circuits, commenced operation at Grand Junction in 1951. Wyoming's Pumpkin Buttes area of Campbell County attracted US Geological Survey Geologist Dave Love, who found uranium in the outcrops of North Butte. Other discoveries were made that year in the Lower Cretaceous Inyan Kara of the Edgemont, South Dakota area, and subsequently by Homestake Mining near Carlisle in Crook County, Wyoming.

Charlie Steen discovered and opened the Mi Vida mine in Big Indian District south of Moab, Utah in 1952, followed by production in 1953, and first production from the Laguna District of New Mexico. In November the first shipment of ore from the Ralston Creek vein in Colorado, by Fred Schwartzwalder yielded 51.29 tons of 1.32% ore.

1953 was the Wyoming discovery date of the Gas Hills Lucky Mac deposit by Neil E. McNeice and wife, interrupted by a "geiger counter gone-crazy", while antelope hunting. Additional discoveries were made in Carbon County in Poison Basin and in Southern Powder River Basin and the Big Horn Mountain's Little Mountain (Osterwald 1966: 201). Discoveries followed in northeastern Wyoming's Crook County, and in Fremont County at Crook's Gap.

1953 also saw Cotter Corporation's Schwartzwalder commence underground production in Colorado, producing 18M pounds over 46 years from on a large uranium-bearing hydrothermal vein. Ore averaged 0.50% U3O8, but grades to 43% were recorded. (The mine is now being hi-graded, in advance of encroaching residential areas.) Western Colorado and southeastern Utah claim staking picked up pace to a frenzy with penny stock companies vying for discoveries.

Texas discoveries were made in 1954, in Eocene and Miocene formations near Falls City, stimulating widespread prospecting using oil well gamma logs. G.H. Strodman, pilot for Jaffe-Martin Assoc. of San Antonio, found radioactive anomalies in the Jackson sandstone while flying scintillation oil surveys in Karnes County, leading to another new uranium district. Uranium was also found near Spokane, Washington, by Indians prospecting for tungsten that year. 1956 recorded the first major production from Ambrosia Lake, N.M. That year the U.S. District Court for New Mexico found valid an old 1946 deed reservation of "all oil, gas and minerals underlying or appurtenant to said lands" included uranium!

Western Nuclear (originally called Lost Creek Oil and Uranium), built the first Wyoming mill, completed July, 1957 at Home-on-the-Range, now named Jeffrey City for Dr. Charles Jeffrey. The central Wyoming mill serviced both Crooks Gap underground and Gas Hills open pit ore.

To the east, Shirley Basin's discovery and claim staking competition between discoverer Dick Lisco of Teton Drilling Co, Tidewater Oil Company, and Utah Construction resulted in the drilling and exploitation of a major uranium deposit. Vern Hughes' Shoni Uranium Company and Cotter Ferguson of Gas Hills Uranium Co, (plus Sasso and Simons of New York, who arrived in Shirley Basin with claim posts sticking out of their Cadillac convertible) helped color the area's history. Dr. Phil Shockey et al with Utah Construction Co. drilled out a program that helped develop the "geochemical cell" theory of uranium deposition into fact. Scientific encouragement was provided by Dr. Nels Harshman of the USGS. A diversion from discovery-drilling activity was provided by the 1957 discovery that the lignites of North and South Dakota contained low grade uranium.

The AEC made several announcements in the years 1956 through 1958 which changed the economics of the uranium game. Previously assistance was provided to prospectors for access roads, drilling, free assaying and ore-buying stations in new areas. After May 24, 1956, however, the AEC recognized that constant new discoveries lessened the need for incentives. October 28^th, 1957 the AEC announced "it is no longer in the interest of the government to expand the production of uranium concentrates". An April 1958, announcement by the AEC allowed limited expansion of the domestic uranium industry for certain reserves developed before November 1, 1957. On November 24^th, 1958, the boom ended with the AEC restricting its 1961-66 contracts to allocated ore reserves proven by 1958. Charlie Steen remarked: "If you find it you can't sell it!"

In February of 1958, the Lucky Mc 1000 tons/day mill was completed in the Gas Hills, producing 700,000 pounds uranium concentrate annually by 1962. In Texas, Climax Molybdenum's San Antonio Mining Co began stripping and mining at Deweesville. Also in 1959, Texas recorded the Columbia Southern Chemical Co discovery of uranium at Palangana Salt Dome in Duval County, Texas. The discovery was made by gamma ray logging of holes drilled for potassium.

1960-1970

In 1960, the AEC and Susquehanna-Western Inc signed a contract allowing a 200 tons/day uranium mill, to be built for $2 million in Karnes County, Texas. Its first concentrate was delivered by mid-1961! It was the 26^th such plant in the US and the first for Texas. The 1960's AEC's stretch out program forced producers to take a longer view with increasing economic pressure to mine by ISL, initially by acid leach and now by alkaline leachates. South Texas uranium production began in the 1960's in Susquehanna Western's shallow pits at the outcrop. Eventually four mills were built to process ore from Susquehanna, Conquista JV, and Chevron mines. The primary form of exploration was analysis of down-hole electric logs and "trendology". 1961 also saw the first ISL operation, by Utah Construction, in Shirley Basin, Wyoming.

In March, 1962 termination of Domestic Uranium Circular 5 was announced by the AEC, revisions of which provided for minimum and premium prices, haulage and development allowances. In 1963, the AEC bought 6.4 M pounds at $8.00 per pound, and then in 1965 the agency announced the Stretch Out Program. In summary: of eleven contracts executed, about 15,300 tons of U3O8 had been deferred from the 1962-1966 period for delivery in 1967-1968 at $8.00 per pound. An additional 15,300 tons in 1969 and 1970 would be bought at an average price of $5.50 to $6.00 per pound.

In 1968, Susquehanna-Western's mill production at Deweesville was about 1.2 million pounds of U3O8. Also in Texas, the Marrs McLean mine opened, making the Oakville sandstone a producer. By this year, 15 uranium mills were producing in the U.S.

In 1969, Tenneco Minerals began mining on the southwestern extension of the roll front on the Weddington property 4 ½ miles south of the Susquehanna-Western mill, making it the second uranium producer in Texas. Wyoming's South Powder River Basin saw a great resurgence in claim staking by USA majors; American Nuclear, Cleveland Cliffs, Cotter, Everest Minerals, Getty, Kerr McGee, and Wold Minerals as well as Canadian junior companies. That year, the total drilling in the U.S. for uranium was estimated at 30 million feet.

1970-1980

Exploration accelerated in the 1970's in response to the AEC's partial release of market controls allowing sales to private utilities and increasing the number of nuclear power plants (Larson 1978:516-517). In 1977, prices surged to almost $50 a pound, encouraging Wyoming Powder River Basin/Pumpkin Buttes development. The 1970's saw the global market emerging with increases in the price to almost $50 per pound. This intensified interest by the utilities and in ISL technology. Early in the decade, Union Carbide initiated ISL at Palangana Dome and Susquehanna-Western constructed a second Texas mill for high lime ores of the Oakville sandstone at Ray Point. A joint venture between Pioneer Nuclear and Continental Oil, the Conquista open pit, commenced production from multiple surface mines. The western U.S. claimed 18 uranium mills operating, averaging a total daily tonnage of 18,100 tons ore.

In Texas, 1975 saw Arco/Dalco/US Steel constructing an ISL operation in Live Oak County. In April, the Clay West mine near George West commenced with an annual capacity of 250,000 pounds per year. December of 1976 the US Steel Burns Ranch operation came into production, at 150,000 pounds per year. 1976 was also the peak year of uranium exploration in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico, claiming 32% of the drilling in the U.S. for the year.

In 1977, Wyoming led the tally of total drilling footage in the U.S.A. with 11 million feet. New Mexico was second with 4.8 million and Texas was third with almost 3 million feet drilled. Uranium exploration drilling was also active to a lessor degree in Colorado, Montana, Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, Washington and Pennsylvania. Total USA mill feed tonnage averaged 23,000 tons for the 16 mills in operation that year. In 1977, Durita Development Corp commenced leaching of the uranium and vanadium tailings at a site in Paradox Valley, Colorado. 1979 saw 40.8 million feet drilled in the western U.S., with 21 conventional mills operating. By 1980, twenty-three ISL and five open pit surface operations were active in Texas.

1980-1990

The 1980's decade saw competitive forces drive most U.S. firms to sell out to foreign-owned companies. It was this decade that oxygen technology was perfected for ISL, with oxygen injection into the mine waters re-dissolving uranium oxide into solution. ISL production sites in South Texas declined to eleven locations however by 1981, but interest in leaching Wyoming deposits grew with successful testing.

In Wyoming, 76 uranium operations were being operated by 27 companies in the 1980-90 decade. Everest Minerals mid-1987 initiated ISL production at Highland and in July of 1989 the property was purchased by CEGB. In New Mexico, six mills had been built to process ore from underground mines with shafts extended to depths attaining three thousand feet. Efforts to use ISL technology in that state have been

unrewarding and are currently stymied by elements of the Navajo Nation and outside interests.

1990-2000

ISL came into its own in this decade, with Ferret/Nebraska (now Crow Butte Resources) receiving state permits to initiate ISL recovery at the Crawford, Nebraska site in May, 1990. Cogema commenced ISL production at the Christensen Ranch in Powder River Basin and also in Texas at the Holiday-El Mesquite property in August, 1991. Rio Algom commenced ISL production at Smith Ranch in June, 1997 with an eventual goal of 2 million pounds annually. Highland, operated by Power Resources, continued operations originally begun by Everest Minerals. Confidence in the future need for uranium resource availability was demonstrated by Cameco Corporation of Saskatchewan with the January 1997 purchase of Power Resources (US$106.5M), followed by the purchase of Uranerz Exploration and Mining Ltd (UEM) and Uranerz U.S.A., August 11, 1998 for Cdn$489 million. The purchase increased Cameco's reserves and resources, worldwide, to 800 million pounds of U3O8.

The uranium mining industry in the USA, and to some extent worldwide, received a severe challenge to future viability when approximately 73 million pounds U3O8 from the USA stockpiles were given to the USEC to sweeten the initial public offering of shares in the privatization process (nearly 27 years production at today's level of production). Developments in the 1990's succumbed to further economic pressures by the USEC and cheap pounds from HEW. Fewer than six companies were active in the United States in 1999, but expansion of nuclear power energy in the Pacific Rim countries bodes well for uranium resource producers. The majors are tightening their belts for the long wait for prices to respond. The fear of global warming, real or imagined, by fossil fuel consumption will ultimately make it easier for the public to accept clean nuclear energy, once waste storage facility public relations are perfected.

Acknowledgments

Historical credits to authors of recorded and unrecorded discoveries are too numerous to mention, and for purposes of "story flow" have not been inserted in the text, but a few prominent sources must be mentioned in grateful appreciation for their research. Deane Dubois of Corpus Christie, Texas uranium scout and historian, and William L. Chenoweth, Grand Junction, Colorado consultant and ex-AEC geologist, have both provided materials, all of it important and difficult to pare down to this article. Chris Healey, of Healex Consulting (Casper) and other professional associates were very generous of their time to help this article reflect the vitality of the "Uranium, USA" narrative.

R.D. Odell (1926- ) has worked in uranium and related resources as a geologist since graduating from University of New Mexico with a B.S. degree in 1951. His uranium "glow" was acquired first in New Mexico and then in Shirley Basin, Wyoming with Tidewater Oil Co. and Petrotomics, from exploration through production. (See photo) The Rocky Mountain Scout, his monthly release of uranium operator resource drilling and mining activities, is an attempt to record both the U.S. and Canadian management viewpoint, from the present USA center of uranium resource activity, Casper, Wyoming. 307/266-1392.