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Show THE aah ta AUGUST-SEPTEMBER The 1970s dramatic price increases and projected shortfalls in uranium production prompted Energy Fuels to construct the $30 million White Mesa Mill near Blanding and the utility-owned Plateau Resources to invest more than $20 million in its Ticaboo Mine and Mill complex in Garfield County. Both of these mills were completed in 1980- just in time to watch the bottom fall out of the uranium mining game. These companies’ assets have changed hands, and the new owners of these mills and mines are looking forward to finally exploiting their multi-million pound ore reserves. They have what every company wants — pounds in the ground. : Since that lastboom, thousands of new residents have moved to southeastern Utah. Some have come to view uranium prospecting and mining as a romantic last chance for the 2005 Deeds ee "The Realtor who knows what's REALLY going on in Moab!" independent prospector. Others are certain that greed-stricken miners should be kept from despoiling the environment by the addition of millions of acres of Wilderness Areas. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance’s last words on the subject stated “the continued production of uranium in Utah, and even in the United States as a whole is in doubt.” Their assessment that “reduced domestic demand for nuclear power combined with less costly JUDY COVERS THE GALAXY! Are you looking Aw y SA %e i SUWA's last words on the subject stated, "the continued production of uranium in Utah, and even in the United States as a whole is in doubt." Their assessment...might need revision. for something WA contemporary, Q\ | presume? AN Actually, some place rustic and remote, where I can play my ukelele. foreign sources of uranium indicate that future production of this commodity from Utah mines is questionable” might need revision. Certainly, opponents of more Wilderness Areas will raise the issue of the new economic vitality of uranium mining when prices soar past $45 a pound. The path ahead looks strewn with contentious conflict. Uranium mining will undoubtedly become a major issue in the debate over more Wilderness Withdrawals as the old extractive mining industry gets its third wind. This will be happening at the same time that environmentalists and wilderness preservationists are dealing with a resurgent oil and gas industry and their supporters in Washington. “Energy Independence” advocates have acquired another ally in the battle over access to Public Lands from an industry that seemed consigned to the uneconomic wastebasket. It does not take a great deal of perspicacity to imagine uranium mining advocates raising the specter of global warming from the accumulation of greenhouse gases threatening the planet with intolerable and lethal heat waves and rising sea levels that will drown every coastal city in the world. Just think how many signatures low-paid students could obtain from inebriated Mardi Gras celebrants when they are asked to sign pro-nuclear petitions to save New Orleans from its inevitable immersion by melting ice caps! Nuclear energy’s opponents will be hard-pressed to convince senators and congressmen that uranium mining should be curtailed when their Georgetown condos are threatened with rising floodwaters as the Potomac River backs up and overflows its banks. Citizens from Bangor, Maine to Brownsville, Texas and from Seattle, Washington to San Diego, California will join together to demand that nuclear power plants are rushed into operation as soon as possible. Oh! The Humanity! Well, maybe things won't have to get quite that bad before nuclear power is embraced as the only energy source that can be applied in time to offset the environmental threat from fossil-fueled power sources. How will the third uranium boom really affect Moab and the other small towns of southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado? Despite being one of the most thoroughly explored areas in the country, hope will always overcome knowledge when it comes to ARCHES REALTY 150 EAST CENTER ST. MOAB. UT 84532 BUS: 435.259.5693 800.634.0770 CELL: 260.9553 judy@moabproperties.com www.moabproperties.com (each office is independently owned and operated) WHY SUBSCRIBE TO THE ZEPHYR? BECAUSE IT’ S THE RIGHT THING TO DO. SUBSCRIPTION INF ORMATION ON PAGE 6 prospecting. Thousands of uranium claims have already been filed with the County Recorders’ Offices in Grand and San Juan Counties. Some of these claims are being staked by old- time uranium mining families who haven’t made a dime off uranium in twenty years. The children and grandchildren of some prominent 1950s mining clans are busy staking claims in areas where their fathers and grandfathers always believed more drilling was needed or some ore was left in the ground. Anyone interested in the subject has heard a story or two about some area where a million pounds of uranium or a hundred thousand tons of ore got overlooked. Stories are circulating about drill holes that hit uranium, but were never followed up with more confirmation drilling. Worked out radioactive holes in the ground where decades of mining couldn’t have left a thousand tons of ore are being staked over for the third time by people who should know better or don’t care as long as they can turn the claims for a quick buck. There are still a few places where uraniumbearing channels have been projected to be found at greater depths along easily followed trends. Some of these targets were written about in geologic literature that has been available for years. All of these known trends are probably covered with claim posts by now Casual observers probably believe that most of the uranium in the area has already been discovered and mined. Although millions of feet of exploration drilling were completed in the two previous booms, few ore deposits were left in place awaiting this third boom. The real future for uranium in this area lies at depth. The economics of the uranium business has to be taken into account. In the 1950s, drilling deeper than 800 feet was very uncommon, except along the known ore trend in the Big Indian District. And again, except in the Big Indian District, where deep drilling discovered several significant ore deposits , few drill holes were completed to depths of more than 1000 feet, even in the 1970s. As uranium prices continue to rise, exploration drilling will begin to search for the uranium many experts believe exists at depths no company considered during the last two booms. Hundreds of millions of pounds of uranium will probably be found during this third boom. So, will Moab ever be the uranium boomtown it was during the 1950s, or the company town it was when Atlas owned the mill on the Colorado River that nobody seems to love anymore? Probably not. Moab is never going to be invaded by tens of thousands of uranium fortune seekers again. Thousands of them have already scoured the outcrops of the ore bearing formations in every direction with Geiger counters. That simple prospecting technique’s time expired in the 1950s. The AEC no longer exists, and the government isn’t encouraging tenderfeet to help keep the Communists behind the Iron Curtain. The years when an enthusiastic amateur could make a fortune in uranium were over by the late Fifties. By the 1960s, the uranium exploration and mining game belonged to about a dozen companies, most of which no longer exist. If there is going to be a collision between Moab’s new residents and the new generation of uranium seekers, it is probably going to be fought over access to the Public Lands. Brace yourself Moab, the third uranium boom on the Colorado Plateau is on the way. ere It only hurts when | move. |Wilderness Medicine of Utah 154 M Street Salt Lake City, UT 84103 WILDERNESS FIRST RESPONDER Prevention Diagnosis Treatment Check our web site and Evacuation watch our Zephyr ads for the next course. Wilderness Medicine of Utah offers the WFR Certification. Courses are taught by faculty from the University of Utah School of Medicine and certified instructors from Wilderness Medicine of Utah CONTACT US: 801.915.3832 www.wmutah.org |
