Wyo. uranium industry bullish amid rising prices

CASPER, Wyo. (The Associated Press) - Jan 7 - By MEAD GRUVER

The uranium industry is striking a bullish tone amid resurgent prices and a welcoming atmosphere in the top state for uranium reserves.

Companies touted plans to mine more uranium in Wyoming during a Wyoming Mining Association news conference Thursday.

"I think uranium will be here to stay," said the association's assistant director, Lynn Welker.

Titan Uranium USA Inc. said it planned to open a combination surface-underground uranium mine in Wyoming. Meanwhile, the top U.S. miner of uranium, Cameco Resources, said it planned to double uranium production in Wyoming by 2018.

Wyoming, followed by New Mexico, together have anywhere from two-thirds to three-quarters of the nation's estimated uranium reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The industry got its start in Wyoming during the early days of the Cold War and fell on hard times in the 1980s.

Uranium prices soared in recent years, reaching $130 per pound in 2007. Prices plummeted during the recession but are up 50 percent since last summer, reaching $62.50 per pound as of Thursday.

Not far from Jeffrey City, a central Wyoming community that has been a ghost town since the local uranium industry went bust in the 1980s, Titan Uranium USA Inc. plans to reopen an area uranium mine once owned by U.S. Energy.

"People ask us if we're going to bring Jeffrey City back from the dead," said Gregory Adams, vice president of Titan Uranium USA Inc.

The mine will bring 200 jobs, which will help the area even though the company has no plans to redevelop the town itself, Adams said.

"I think the uranium industry is on a roll here again in Wyoming and they're going to bring a lot to the state," he said.

The company is finalizing paperwork to obtain a source material license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission so it can process raw ore into yellowcake at the Sheep Mountain Mine site. The company plans to begin mining at what will be a combination surface and underground operation by 2014, Adams said.

Conventional mining of uranium has fallen off in the U.S. in favor of in-situ mining, which involves pumping chemicals underground to dissolve uranium ore out of rock. A solution of ore is then pumped to the surface.

Cameco Resources, which uses the process to mine uranium in eastern Wyoming, plans to double production of uranium in the state by 2018.

Cameco is the largest miner of uranium in the U.S. and supplies more than half of the domestically produced uranium for U.S. power plants, according to the company.

Burgeoning global demand for uranium, moreso than the prospect of new nuclear power plants being built in the U.S., is cause for bullishness, industry officials said.

The uranium market is global and reflects global trends, said Ken Vaughn, spokesman for Cheyenne-based Cameco.

"The price is reflective of the world demand, not the U.S. demand," he said.

Cameco's Smith Ranch-Highland mine in Converse County is the largest U.S. uranium production facility. The Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based company also has several uranium mines in Canada and one in western Nebraska.

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