Part One: Two Uraniium Exploration Companies Slug It Out in Utah's Lisbon Valley
By: James Finch | Posted: 25th July 2006
After interviewing SXR Uranium One Chief Executive Neal Froneman, we realized it was important to cover developments in Utah, particularly in the Lisbon Valley. Each time Mr. Froneman talked about Wyoming, he nearly always included Utah in the same breath. Most of our focus for the first half of 2006 had been on the In Situ Recovery (ISR) method of uranium mining. Now, as the uranium spot price knocks on the $50/pound level, it appears conventional mining in the United States may return with a vengeance.
Utah is strictly high grade uranium underground mining, possibly offering some the consistently highest grades available in the United States. International Uranium Corporation's announcement to reopen the White Mesa uranium mill, some 50 miles away from the Lisbon Valley, was the first step geared to renew interest in southeastern Utah's Paradox Basin. SXR's interest in the area was a significant second step. There may be several more reasons if the early drilling results of two junior exploration companies show promise deep below this semi-arid ground covered with juniper, sage brush, and sprinklings of Ponderosa and Pinyon pines trees.
Utah is a state where underground uranium mining was successful and continued until the spot price completely collapsed. Specifically, it was the Paradox Basin of the Colorado Plateau, which became world famous, partly because of a Hollywood movie about its most colorful pioneer, Charlie Steen. His home in Moab, Utah became the city of millionaires, a consequence of the uranium rush he launched with his discovery.
Lisbon Valley became the most heavily promoted uranium districts in the world, thanks to a then-penniless Charlie Steen, the unemployed petroleum geologist who discovered the Mi Vida uranium deposit on the southwest side of the Lisbon Valley anticline. On July 6, 1952, Charlie Steen cored through 14 feet of grayish-black pitchblende – specimens of which he had only seen in museums. No one had ever before discovered pitchblende on the Plateau. With uranium grades up to 0.4 percent, this became one of the richest ore bodies mined in the United States.
Our recent investigation and interviews with two geologists revealed there could be an area play again developing in the Lisbon Valley uranium district. It is also known as the Big Indian Uranium District, named after the ore belt, and is located 30 miles south of Moab, Utah – about halfway between Salt Lake City and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Excluding U.S. Energy, which holds prospective uranium properties on the west side of the Lisbon Valley Fault, there are three junior uranium exploration companies exploring or hoping to explore for uranium on the northeast side of the Lisbon Valley Fault. They hope to continue where Rio Algom left off, during the nadir of the twenty-year uranium depression.
James Finch contributes to StockInterview.com and other publications. Visit http://www.stockinterview.com to download your free copy of "Investing in the Great Uranium Bull Market: A Practical Investor's Guide to Uranium Stocks." You can always write to James Finch at jfinch@stockinterview.com
About the Author
Occupation: Writer
James Finch is a contributing editor for StockInterview.com and other publications. http://www.stockinterview.com
This article is free for republishing
Printed From: http://www.articlealley.com/article_76140_19.html
Back to the original article
Tags: uranium mining