The Trump administration on Friday approved the reopening of a uranium mine in southeastern Utah, the first project approved under a new 14-day environmental review process.
“This approval marks a turning point in how we secure America’s mineral future,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in a statement. “By streamlining the review process for critical mineral projects like Velvet-Wood, we’re reducing dependence on foreign adversaries and ensuring our military, medical and energy sectors have the resources they need to thrive. This is mineral security in action.”
The Velvet-Wood mine, near Utah’s Lisbon Valley, will produce both uranium and vanadium. The former can be processed into fuel for nuclear reactors, while the latter is commonly used in steel alloys.
The announcement comes 11 days after the Interior Department ordered the Bureau of Land Management to review the mine’s environmental impacts within 14 days, as opposed to the prior timeline of months or years.
The fast-tracking follows a January executive order from President Donald Trump declaring a “national energy emergency.”
The mine is owned by Anfield Energy Inc., headquartered in Canada. It produced 400,000 tons of uranium ore between 1979 and 1984, according to the company, before it shut down. Anfield reports that the site currently boasts over 5 million pounds of uranium ore to be mined.
“We’re excited to see the Department of the Interior highlight a Utah project as one of the first to benefit from a faster, more efficient permitting process,” said Gov. Spencer Cox in a statement when the mine’s fast-tracked review was announced earlier this month.
“For years, we’ve called for commonsense reforms that make it easier to build without sacrificing environmental stewardship,” Cox said. “There’s no reason permitting can’t be both timely and responsible — and we’re hopeful this project will prove just that.”
