{"id":16000,"date":"2025-10-23T23:44:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T05:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southeast-utah-uranium-mine-to-have-groundbreaking-ceremony-nov-6\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:53:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:53:36","slug":"southeast-utah-uranium-mine-to-have-groundbreaking-ceremony-nov-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southeast-utah-uranium-mine-to-have-groundbreaking-ceremony-nov-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Southeast Utah uranium mine to have groundbreaking ceremony Nov. 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"U.S.
U.S. Energy Corp resident project manager Daryl Winters locks the gate on, on July 12, 2006, at the Shootaring Mill north of Ticaboo, Utah. (Douglas C. Pizac\/The Associated Press)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

After a go-ahead from the state this month, Anfield Energy will officially begin construction on its uranium and vanadium-producing Velvet-Wood mine in southeast Utah starting Nov. 6.<\/p>\n

The company will hold a formal groundbreaking ceremony for the mine, in San Juan County, Utah\u2019s Lisbon Valley, 20 miles northeast of Monticello, according to a news release<\/a> Thursday. Dewatering, mine reopening and new infrastructure development are all on the horizon, the company says.<\/p>\n

The Canada-based company that purchased the Velvet-Wood mine in 2015 announced on Oct. 7<\/a> it received construction approval from the Utah Department of Oil, Gas and Mining. That approval came after a federal green light from the U.S. Dept. of the Interior<\/a> in May under a 14-day accelerated review process.<\/p>\n

\u201cNovember 6th will be more than a groundbreaking \u2013 it\u2019s a bold declaration of Anfield\u2019s readiness to help fuel the American nuclear renaissance,\u201d Corey Dias, CEO of the company, said in the news release.<\/p>\n

Anfield\u2019s construction is part of the Trump administration\u2019s plans to ramp up the nation\u2019s domestic supply of nuclear energy<\/a> and critical minerals<\/a>. Uranium is essential to nuclear power, while vanadium is often used for manufacturing.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration wants to raise the U.S. nuclear energy capacity <\/a>by 2050, from 2024\u2019s roughly 100 gigawatts up to 400 GW. The U.S. has 94 reactors, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute<\/a>. Trump\u2019s administration seeks to add 10 more.<\/p>\n

Uranium mining in the Four Corners region is still controversial. Protesters showed up to the Velvet-Wood mine earlier this year<\/a>, while some have described an expedited environmental review for the mine outpacing safe guidelines<\/a> previously set in place.<\/p>\n

Backlash <\/a>has been expressed by some members on the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe\u2019s southern Utah reservation because of concerns about a uranium mill near the community, while Navajos continue to grapple with the legacy of uranium mining on their land.<\/p>\n

Dias said the company invites \u201cour stakeholders, partners, and the San Juan County community\u201d to attend the ceremony. The event will include \u201cAnfield executives, local community leaders, and representatives from federal and state agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ceremony will be Nov. 6 at 11 a.m. Those interested are invited to RSVP on the company\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding on the Trump Administration\u2019s visionary Executive Orders \u2013 from reinvigorating the nuclear fuel cycle to expanding the workforce \u2013 Velvet-Wood positions us to supply uranium for clean energy, medical isotopes, and naval propulsion, while vanadium strengthens infrastructure and aerospace,\u201d Dias said.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of tons of uranium were extracted from the Velvet-Wood mine in the 1980s, before a sharp industry decline forced its closure. It has remained inactive for decades.<\/p>\n

In Garfield County, Utah, across the Colorado River and Bears Ears National Monument resides Anfield\u2019s Shootaring Canyon uranium mill. Velvet-Wood\u2019s uranium will eventually be processed at the mill, the company says.<\/p>\n

Anfield also has other U.S. projects, the company says, like one in Colorado\u2019s San Miguel County, a<\/a>nd another 50 miles outside of Albuquerque. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canada-based Anfield Energy to officially begin construction in San Juan County, Utah<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16000"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19960,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16000\/revisions\/19960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16000"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}