Energy Fuels Corporation is so proud of their successes in rare earth mining and processing! CEO Mark Chambers and all of his investors are very proud of their “milestone” achievements, (Journal, Jan. 7). They are providing an unnamed Korean carmaker and the U.S. military industrial complex with high-quality magnets.
Energy Fuels Corporation also mines uranium in various places in Arizona and Utah. They process the uranium at the White Mesa Mill in San Juan County, Utah, not far from Blanding, Bluff, Towac and Cortez. Since the 1990s, this facility has also been a permanent repository (dump) for radioactive waste from U.S. Superfund sites and from other countries.
The White Mesa Mill has acres of ponds to contain the waste. In that arid land, the water evaporates quickly. Prevailing winds from the southwest blow radioactive dust and radon gas onto Ute Mountain Ute communities, Cortez, Mancos and Durango. There are concerns that toxic chemicals and radioactive contaminants are seeping into the aquifer and fouling the area’s natural springs.
Ute Mountain Ute tribal members are concerned about increased cases of lung, liver, and bone cancers, kidney damage and high rates of asthma in children on their reservations. The state of Utah makes a lot of money from this operation. Transportation of uranium ore and other dangerous compounds are hauled in trucks on the roads and highways on Ute and Navajo reservations.
The Ute communities have been protesting the mill’s contamination since 2017. Greed trumps health in Indian Country!
David Mallin
Mancos
