Groundbreaking held for Velvet-Wood mine

by David Boyle
News Director
A groundbreaking for a uranium mine reopening in Lisbon Valley was held on November 6.
Canadian-based Anfield Energy is moving forward on the building of its Velvet-Wood mines in Lisbon Valley.
Anfield Energy Director Joshua Bleak spoke with Redrock92.7 FM ahead of the opening sharing that the mine was last in operation in 1984.
“Since that time with the US nuclear industry being down, it sat dormant and then ultimately was reclaimed,” said Bleak.
“We’ve gone through about a year plus in permitting. Earlier this year, we were expedited by the federal government, but then we still had some state stuff to work on, and we’ve just gotten that state approval in place. So, we’re getting ready to reopen.”
Bleak said as of right now, the complex is a construction site with road building required as well as other efforts to bring the mine into operation.
The company plans to begin production in the second half of 2026. The company also is planning to reopen the Shootaring Mill at Ticaboo in Garfield County, with operation at the mill planned for 2027.
The mine received a fast-tracked approval by the federal government earlier this year.
On May 23, the Department of Interior (DOI) announced the approvals for the mines. That approval came just 11 days after the Interior announced the use of emergency procedures as part of a national energy emergency declared by President Trump on January 20, 2025 aimed at, in part, decreasing reliance on foreign energy.
Environmental activists have raised concerns about the expedited process, with a protest of around 20 people held at the site in June.
Environmental groups have raised concerns about completing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in under two weeks.
The NEPA process includes evaluations which can take multiple years in some instances in just two weeks.
NEPA processes typically include analysis of potential impacts on the project environment, alternatives to consider and any mitigation of impacts on public lands including watersheds.
The process also includes opportunities for public participation in the form of comments and sometimes hearings.
Sierra Club Utah Chapter Director Fanque Bains said the fast tracking of the permit comes at a cost for the community.
“This mine is adjacent to the Navajo nation and once again, the Trump administration has chosen to act without adequate input from those most directly affected.
“The radioactive materials that this mine will handle are dangerous to  neighboring communities, wildlife, water, and plant life alike. Thursday marks a sad day in our nation’s history. This type of fast-tracking is devastating to our communities as it forces them to bear the brunt of the environmental impact with little say or ability to halt it all together.”
Bleak said the company has been working behind the scenes on the process for additional time before receiving the go ahead under the executive order.
“The fact is that we had been in kind of pre-permitting for about a year. We had submitted our permit, our application, and that had gone on for about 14 months and we didn’t know when that federal permitting was going to be ultimately moved forward.
“Then that’s when the 14-days kicked in and we were one of the first and the biggest reason for that is we had done everything already. It was a past-producing mine. The new disturbance is only going to total three acres and so even for the Department of Interior, the Bureau of Land Management, it was kind of a slam dunk. It was low-hanging fruit, if you will.”
Bleak added they had to work through the state of Utah including bonding on the project.
“We had to go through all of that to finalize what reclamation and bonding would look like and that’s what we just got done most recently and that’s what’s allowed us to get started at site in the last couple weeks.”
The Velvet-Wood mine is located off Williamson Fork road in Lisbon Valley, less than five miles from the Lisbon Valley Mining operation.
Bleak added the area has historically produced uranium, saying that 60 percent of the uranium produced in Utah came from the Lisbon Valley area.
“The energy consumption is going to double in the next 15 years in the US,” said Bleak. “That’s largely, you know, with AI, right, and overall electrification. (...) The problem is how do you fill this demand?
“The US is committed to doubling, tripling, and quadrupling of nuclear power generation by 2050 and there’s just no way we’re going to meet that without US production. We’re going to do our part. So, we’re increasing our license at the mill. We do have a current license. We’re increasing that capacity to three million pounds of annual production. Current demand in the US is nearly 50 million pounds. so, it’s just a drop in the bucket.”
Bleak added that following Covid and other events the realization has been the US can’t be relying 100 percent on foreign supplies.
“You need to have some level of domestic production, domestic manufacturing. And for rural communities, these types of jobs that come from mining, from construction, construction for manufacturing. They are the best. They are the ones that can build a community.
“One of the biggest comments is that we just want our kids to be able to have an opportunity to stay in town if they want to rather than just leave to the big city. So that’s really our goal.
“We think that with the San Juan County area, we’re going to be bringing 100 jobs between the production at Velvet Wood and between what we’ll need from San Juan County going over to Ticaboo over to Shootering there’s going to be 100 jobs coming to this county and oftentimes there’s a multiplier with those types of jobs. Three to five times are felt in the local community.”
Bleak added what comes next is a period of development work, including a dewatering construction of site facilities.
“We’ve got some temporary facilities that have gone up the last couple weeks but all of that has to take place. So, this is really fresh dirt.
It was fully reclaimed in the early 2000s. So from the roads down to the pad, we just opened up the old historic portal and that’s what we’ll use to access the underground. It is an underground mine. There’ll be workers at the surface, there’ll be miners underground and we’re looking to hire all of those positions.”
Anfield reports between 1979 and 1984 the Velvet mine produced four million pounds of uranium and five million pounds of vanadium.
Anfield bought the mine in 2015 and has announced plans to bring their Shootaring Canyon Mill into production located north of Ticaboo on the northwest side of Lake Powell a little less than a 200 mile drive from the mine in San Juan county to the mill in Garfield county.