{"id":16005,"date":"2025-10-09T00:00:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T06:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/utah-greenlights-uranium-mine-northeast-of-monticello\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:53:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:53:37","slug":"utah-greenlights-uranium-mine-northeast-of-monticello","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/utah-greenlights-uranium-mine-northeast-of-monticello\/","title":{"rendered":"Utah greenlights uranium mine northeast of Monticello"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A uranium mill tailings site near Slick Rock, Colorado, sits not far from the Velvet-Wood uranium mine in San Juan County, Utah. On Oct. 7, Velvet-Wood announced that the Utah Department of Oil, Gas and Mining approved construction at the mine. Journal file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Utah has given the go-ahead for a uranium mine located about 20 miles northeast of Monticello.<\/p>\n

Anfield Energy, a Canada-based company that bought the Velvet-Wood mine in 2015, announced on Tuesday <\/a>that the Utah Department of Oil, Gas and Mining officially approved construction at the Lisbon Valley site.<\/p>\n

In May, the Velvet-Wood mine received approval from the U.S. Department of the Interior<\/a>. At the behest of an accelerated 14-day environmental review process initiated under the current Trump administration, the mine came closer to feeding the nuclear energy sector.<\/p>\n

In January, Trump signed a national energy emergency<\/a>, citing a meager domestic energy supply and a reliance on foreign nations for power sources. In March, the president signed an executive order to boost U.S. mineral production,<\/a> followed by an order in May meant to uplift the country\u2019s nuclear energy base.<\/a> Velvet-Wood\u2019s uranium, along with vanadium used in steel alloy, are meant to serve the president\u2019s energy strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the plethora of nuclear energy-related Executive Orders released by the Administration in 2025, the path to sustained U.S. nuclear growth is being established,\u201d Corey Dias, the company CEO, said in the announcement. \u201cAnfield\u2019s portfolio of uranium assets are well positioned to contribute to the fuel cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest check mark from Utah means development at Velvet-Wood can ramp up, paving the way for uranium mining. According to Anfield Energy\u2019s announcement, the next steps for the mine are:<\/p>\n

Removal of mine groundwater.Construction of surface facilities.Reopening of a mine access portal.Construction of a new incline needed to enter the mine.Inspection of the underground and an assessment ahead of construction.<\/div>\n

Anfield has reported that<\/a> the area it will disturb for the mine totals to about 28 acres.<\/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

Farther west, 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

Mine has faced opposition<\/div>\n

The fast-moving plans underway for Anfield have attracted opposition in Utah from those worried about the environmental and health impacts of radioactive material.<\/p>\n

In June, a group of protesters showed up outside of the Velvet-Wood mine, according to The Times Independent of Moab<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

Activists held up signs that read \u201cStop Velvet-Wood Uranium Mine,\u201d \u201cKeep Shootaring Mill closed\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t fast-track Utah into a wasteland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protesters were especially concerned about the fast-tracked approval process. A step-by-step that allowed weeks or months for public weigh-in was condensed into mere days under the new U.S. process, according to The Grand Canyon Trust<\/a>, a nonprofit outspoken against the mine.<\/p>\n

The mine\u2019s latest approval also comes as members of the nearby Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe speak out against uranium industry developments and the legacy of contaminated lands. In mid-September, a convention was held in White Mesa, Utah<\/a> to address concerns.<\/p>\n

The Velvet-Wood mine does not stand alone in southeastern Utah. San Juan County is home to another major player in the nuclear industry: a uranium mill operated by Canada-based Energy Fuels, adjacent to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe\u2019s White Mesa community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canada-based Anfield Energy can begin construction on mine in San Juan County, Utah<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16006,"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-16005","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\/16005","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=16005"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19963,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16005\/revisions\/19963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16005"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}