Environmental review for Velvet-Wood will be completed in just 14 days
The US Interior Department has announced it will fast-track environmental permitting for Anfield Energy’s proposed Velvet-Wood uranium mine project in Utah to boost president Donald Trump’s efforts to increase domestic energy production.
As a result, the project’s environmental review will be completed in just 14 days, the department said in a statement.
Such studies typically take years because of the potential environmental effects of uranium mining.
Canada-based Anfield Energy said Velvet-Wood is the first uranium project fast-tracked by the US government under Trump’s emergency declaration to restore American energy independence. It said the move was “a decisive shift in federal support for domestic nuclear fuel supply”.
Secretary of the interior Doug Burgum said America is facing an alarming energy emergency because of the prior administration’s climate extremist policies.
“President Trump and his administration are responding with speed and strength to solve this crisis, he said.
“The expedited mining project review represents exactly the kind of decisive action we need to secure our energy future.”
If approved, the Velvet-Wood mine project in San Juan County would produce uranium, used in both nuclear energy and nuclear weapons production, as well as vanadium, a metal than can be used in batteries or to strengthen steel and other alloys.
The Interior Department said the project would be at the site of a previous mining operation and lead to only three acres (1.2 hectares) of new surface disturbance.
Anfield also owns the Shootaring Canyon uranium mill in Utah, which it intends to restart. That mill would convert uranium ore into uranium concentrate that could be used as a nuclear fuel.
Anfield acquired the Velvet-Wood mine – which is currently in care and maintenance – from Uranium One in 2015. Between 1979 and 1984, Atlas Minerals mined approximately 400,000 tonnes of ore from the Velvet Deposit, recovering approximately four million pounds of triuranium octoxide (U3O8).
U3O8, also known as yellowcake, is a type of uranium concentrate powder used to produce fuel for nuclear power reactors.
