During an intensive period of nuclear bomb development following World War II, Washington established uranium mines in a number of locations on the Colorado Plateau, many on Indian reservation lands. The industry went bust in the 1980s.

The revival would have been unheard of just a few years ago, Stuart Sanderson of the Colorado Mining Association, told the Denver Post. “But with the price of natural gas going up, we’re seeing an increased demand for coal and uranium.”

What’s happening in western Colorado’s uranium belt is far from the boom that once dominated the area. But industry analysts predict that uranium prices will continue to climb, which will encourage more uranium production.

The 435 nuclear reactors in the world—including 104 in the United States—need 180 million pounds of uranium annually, according to the Denver Post. Global production has been half that.

The gap between supply and demand has pushed uranium and vanadium prices to their highest levels in more than 20 years, since the meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and the explosion at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine put the brakes on the construction of new nuclear power plants.

Uranium is currently selling for $20.50 a pound. Its price was as low as $7.50 a pound in 2001. Industry predictions have it climbing as high as $25-$35 before it levels off. And the steel-hardener vanadium that comes from the same ore has jumped from less than $2 a pound to around $10.

Those prices are behind the new stepped-up uranium mining in Canada, Australia, and Africa, as well as in one of the largest uranium reserves in the United States—an area that stretches from Grants, New Mexico, through the Paradox Valley in western Colorado and into Utah.

In the midst of the post-World War II boom, UMETCO Minerals built an entire company town, Uravan, Colorado. It was condemned in the 1980s by the state’s department of public health and leveled because of radioactive contamination. All that’s left of the town today is a UMETCO building and holding ponds for the massive radioactive clean-up.

Thousands of uranium miners are sick or dying mostly from lung cancer and other lung ailments caused by exposure to radioactive dust.

Former miner Bill Chadd told the Denver Post that of 13 miners who worked on his crew in the 1970s, only two are alive.

Of the few former miners remaining in the area, most are older. The work is heavy and includes running handheld jack-leg drills. This is producing a labor shortage as the companies seek to increase production. Glen Williams, a spokesperson for the uranium producer Cottor Corp., told the Post that his company would open more mines if they could hire enough miners.  
 
 
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