By Katharhynn Heidelberg Montrose Daily Press Senior Writer
Seven years after winning a special use permit, backers of the Pinon Ridge Uranium Mill are asking for an extension in which to begin.
Mill owners’ hopes to engage in ablation technology, meanwhile, could be affected by the state’s Dec. 1 determination that proposed ablation technology at their San Miguel County mine would have to be regulated through a milling license.
The controversial Pinon Ridge mill, approved for the West End of Montrose County, is yet to start operations, in part because of litigation over and the resulting abeyance of its state radioactive materials permit.
Montrose County’s role was to approve a special use permit allowing the mill to be sited in an area zoned for agriculture. The permit was granted in 2009, with a host of conditions. A critical one has not been met: The mill was to have been up and running by the end of September of this year.
“They have not done that,” Montrose County Land Use Director Steve White said. “They have requested an amendment to the condition to allow additional time. They’ve asked for four additional years to be able to build.”
Montrose County Commissioner Glen Davis acknowledged that Pinon Ridge Corp. has not begun its operations within the timeline called for under the county’s special use permit.
“That hasn’t come to pass. They want to extend it,” he said.
In a letter, George Glasier, president and CEO of Pinon Ridge Resources Corporation (formerly Energy Fuels Resources), requested the modification to extend the special use permit by four years.
“Due to the current ‘abatement’ status of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s radioactive materials license for the subject property, the company has not begun facilities construction,”Glasier wrote in the Sept. 14 letter, which White discussed with county commissioners last week during a work session.
Calls were made to Glasier Dec. 2 and Monday; he could not be reached for comment in advance of deadline.
“We basically go back through the process again,”White said, referring to the special use permit condition requiring construction by this year. “We’re only going to deal with this issue. We’re not doing anything else with the permit. Only that.”
Pinon Ridge Mill, largely favored by Nucla and Naturita residents who are starved for employment opportunities, must also adhere to state and federal milling laws and regulations. The mill won a radioactive materials license from CDPHE after a lengthy and contentious public process, which in turn led to litigation.
That license was held in abeyance in 2014, with CDPHE instructed by the courts to make further determinations concerning the hearing process.
Last month, Pinon Ridge Resources Corp. announced in a news release its letter of intent with Western Uranium Corp. to use ablation mining technology at the mill near Nucla and Naturita.
The letter provides for the processing of all of Western’s ore produced by its mines in the region at the mill site to produce U308 and vanadium, using both ablation and traditional milling.
The letter is subject to a definitive agreement contemplated on or before March 1.
Ablation entails crushing operations to separate rock from ore and using high-pressure water to separate the ore from the rock, concentrating the uranium.
Last year, Western Uranium Corporation through its subsidiary Black Range Minerals, proposed ablation processing at the Sunday Mine complex. The company earlier acquired the mill.
The CDPHE temporarily halted ablation until it could receive clarity from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission as to whether the waste produced through ablation is considered a byproduct if such waste does not contain hazardous or radioactive materials.
In October, the NRC responded: NRC staff noted that ablation involves extraction or concentration of uranium from an ore processed mainly for its source material content.
Black Range Minerals provided technical and regulatory analysis to CDPHE, which the NRC considered.
The regulatory body’s October letter says that while Black Range Minerals indicated the waste from the process it uses doesn’t contain hazardous and concentrated radioactive material, the NRC’s review of materials provided to the CDPHE in April indicates otherwise.
Black Range Minerals could develop its technology to the point where data show that the process does not produce the hazardous and radioactive material; at that point, CDPHE could consider whether to grant an exemption, the NRC letter states.
The NRC’s response also says that the uranium ablation process at a minimum requires a source material license and should be considered uranium millingthat is subject to state regulation.
Western Uranium Corp. in its news release said it does not agree, and labeled the finding as “unsupported.”The NRC advisory does not address how ablation might be used in mine remediation for cleanup purposes, which would not constitute milling, Western contends.
On Dec. 1, after public hearings, the CDPHE determined that Black Range Minerals’ proposed ablation operations at the Sunday Mine would require a milling license for regulation.
The proposed ablation operations at the Sunday mine meet the regulatory definition of source material milling and the wastes from such ablation operations meet the definition of byproduct, according to the CDPHE.
The department said, however, that the wastes appear to possess much less radiological and hazardous risk than typical uranium mill tailings, so alternative disposal methods could be considered. These would require NRC approval.
“This may be the first determination about ablation in the country,”said Warren Smith, a spokesman for the CDPHE.
The Sunday Mine decision is not a rule or regulation, but specifically addresses Black Range Minerals’ proposed ablation operations there. The CDPHE reserves the right to make decisions about ablation operations elsewhere.
Black Range can continue pilot testing of its ablation technology as long as source material licensing requirements are met, per the CDPHE’s Dec. 1 letter.
Davis said the uranium market may be rising.
“This new political situation in the country, with a new leader, it might be a situation where we produce our own uranium. The best place for that is where there is uranium,”he said.
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