Uranium’s Historic Past Leads to Rare Earth Extractions

Uranium has been a major ore mined in San Juan County since the 1940’s.  According to former County Commissioner Ken Bailey, the first mill was built in 1942 and both vanadium and uranium were removed from the ore at that time. 
In an interview with Fay Muhlestein, she asked if anyone worried about radiation.  Bailey responded, “Nobody worried one whit about low level radiation!”
He explained that about four feet of clay was put in as a base, then the tailings were covered with clay. The Department of Energy was also involved and had tested all of the springs down South Creek and Montezuma Canyon and found no contamination.
Issues 25 and 26 of Blue Mountain Shadows includes  many stories of the early uranium miners and areas mined in San Juan County.
The White Mesa mill first opened in 1980.  Uranium mills at that time would grind uranium ore and apply chemical processes to convert it to yellowcake uranium. 
The White Mesa mill received uranium ore from the La Sal and Pinyon mines.
Processing a batch of uranium ore to yellowcake took  about seven days. The chemical process uses water from on-site wells and sulfuric acid. The radioactive waste from this process was stored on-site in containment ponds. When the ponds were full, they were covered with dirt.
Now 46 years later, Energy Fuels is extracting rare earth oxides at its White Mesa Mill and has partnered with Vulcan Elements, a North Carolina-based rare earth magnet manufacturer.
The expansion of the company’s light rare earth oxides will also include large-scale production of heavy rare earth oxides and alloys. Both will provide a rare earth metal supply chain via Energy Fuels.
The Blanding mill has the current commercial capacity to produce up to 1,000 tons per annum of separated NdPr oxide. It will also be able to produce terbium, samarium, europium, and gadolinium oxides along with other rare earth minerals.
These alloys will be used in powerful magnets essential in data centers as well as the automotive, robotic and energy and defense industries.
The White Mesa Mill expansion plan is designed to increase the capacity of production up to approximately 20 tpa of terbium, 120 of dysprosium, 149 tpa of samarium, 20 tpa of europium and gadolinium oxides along with other rare earth minerals.
The White Mesa heavy rare earth expansion is also timed to process the anticipated near-term monazite output from the Company’s Donald Project, a joint venture in Australia. The planned expansion is also expected to include a circuit for the processing of mixed rare earth carbonates (MREC) to enable Energy Fuels to process additional types of feedstocks produced globally that are rich in heavy rare earth oxides.
Energy Fuels Inc. is a Canadian-domiciled uranium mining and refining company headquartered in Colorado and was established in 2006. It operates the Pinyon Plain uranium mine in the Grand Canyon, the La Sal mine near La Sal, Utah and White Mesa Uranium Mill in Blanding. 
From 2018 to 2023, the company contributed more than half the uranium production in the United States!  The Blanding plant provides jobs for local Navajos and Anglos alike.
Energy Fuels is governed by a board of directors and a number of executives. The CEO is Mark S. Chalmers, Ross Bhappu is company president, David C. Frydenlund is the executive vice president, chief legal officer, and corporate secretary.
Curtis H. Moore is senior vice president of marketing. Nathan Longenecker is senior vice president and general counsel. Nathan Bennett is chief financial officer.
The board of directors is chaired by Bruce D. Hansen, and its members include Mark Chalmers, J. Birks Bovaird, Benjamin Eshleman III, Barbara Filas, Jaqueline Herrera, Dennis Higgs, Alex Morrison, and Michael Stirzaker.