Crow Butte is a

uranium mining Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the earth. Over 50,000 tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account for 68% of w ...

operation located southeast of the city of Crawford in Dawes County,

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

, United States.

Cameco Corporation Cameco Corporation (formerly Canadian Mining and Energy Corporation) is the world's largest publicly traded uranium company, based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 2015, it was the world's second largest uranium producer, accounting for 18 ...

owns and operates Crow Butte through its wholly owned subsidiary, Crow Butte Resources, Inc.

History

Crow Butte was the first uranium mine developed in Nebraska. It was discovered in 1980 and begin production in April 1991. It is a roll-front uranium deposit, mined using in-situ recovery (ISR). Due to weakening of the uranium market, production ceased in 2018. The project is under care and maintenance pending an improvement in uranium prices.

Description

At Crow Butte, uranium ore is mined in place underground in well fields. Uranium is extracted from basal Chadron Formation sandstone aquifers below the surface by the in-situ recovery process. A solution of water, oxygen and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is injected into the orebody, which liberates the uranium from its sandstone host and allows recovery by production wells. The solution is pumped to the surface and uranium is removed at the processing plant. The mine's processing plants and well fields have a licensed capacity of 2 million pounds per year. During 2015 Crow Butte produced 0.4 million pounds U₃O₈, 33% less than 2014, due to a declining head grade. Between 2002 and 2015, the Crow Butte operation produced 10.1 million pounds of U₃O₈.

Resources

As of 31 December 2019 the measured and indicated resources at Crow Butte were 13.9 million pounds of U₃O₈ at a grade of 0.25%. The developed uranium deposit at Crow Butte has been progressively depleted by production.

License expansion

To allow the mine plant to continue operating, three new expansion sites are under application for license review by the

US Nuclear Regulatory Commission The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with protecting public health and safety related to nuclear energy. Established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, the ...

, all within several miles of the plant. Material from the three sites would be transported to the central plant at Crow Butte for final processing. In 2015, the Oglala Sioux Tribe lodged six objections with the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board against the expansion of the mine's operating license to include the Marsland Expansion Area (south of the current site), claiming Crow Butte was a sacred site and within their treaty territory. Construction at Marsland create surface disturbance of 600 acres, with future construction disturbing another 1,160 acres.

Ownership

The Crow Butte facility was originally developed by Wyoming Fuel Corporation in 1986 and subsequently acquired and operated by Ferret Exploration Company of Nebraska. In 1994, Ferret Exploration Company changed its name to Crow Butte Resources, Inc. In 1998 Crow Butte Resources was acquired by Cameco Resources Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of the Canadian company, Cameco Corporation. Cameco is the largest producer of uranium in the US, and accounts for 18% of global uranium production from its mines in Canada, the US and Kazakhstan.

References