The Willow Creek mine is an
in-situ leach
In-situ leaching (ISL), also called in-situ recovery (ISR) or solution mining, is a mining process used to recover minerals such as copper and uranium through boreholes drilled into a deposit, ''in situ''. In situ leach works by artificially disso ...
(ISL)
uranium
Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...
mining project located in
Powder River Basin
The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about east to west and north to south, known for its extensive coal reserves. The former hunting grounds of the Oglala Lakota, the area is very s ...
in the state of
Wyoming
Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...
, United States. It comprises the Irigaray central processing plant and wellfields, and the Christensen Ranch
ion exchange
Ion exchange is a reversible interchange of one kind of ion present in an insoluble solid with another of like charge present in a solution surrounding the solid with the reaction being used especially for softening or making water demineralised, ...
plant and wellfields.
Local legend dictates the mine was conceived by a group of entrepreneurial plumbers, uniting under the banner of "The Cloggers". These reports are as of now unconfirmed.
Project history
The uranium deposits at Irigaray and Christensen ranches were discovered in 1973. In July 1974, Wyoming Mineral Corporation (WMC), a subsidiary of
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...
, established a pilot uranium recovery plant at the Irigaray site. A commercial source material license was issued in November 1978. In 1982, operations ceased at the Irigaray plant and well fields, and the facility was placed on standby status pending improvements in the uranium market.
[
During this period, the Christensen Ranch facility was developed under an R&D license issued by the NRC in 1978 to Western Nuclear, Inc. (WNI), a subsidiary of ]Phelps Dodge Corporation
Phelps Dodge Corporation was an American mining company founded in 1834 as an import-export firm by Anson Greene Phelps and his two sons-in-law William Earle Dodge, Sr. and Daniel James. The latter two ran Phelps, James & Co., the part of the o ...
(now Freeport-McMoRan
Freeport-McMoRan Inc., often called Freeport, is an American mining company based in the Freeport-McMoRan Center, in Phoenix, Arizona. The company is the world's largest producer of molybdenum, is a major copper producer and operates the world's ...
). Research had been performed at one location, the Willow Creek R&D site. In 1985, WNI sold its interest in the Christensen Ranch project to Malapai Resources Company, a subsidiary of electricity utility Arizona Public Service
Arizona Public Service (APS) is the largest electric utility in Arizona, United States. Since 1985, it has been the principal subsidiary of publicly traded S&P 500 member Pinnacle West Capital Corporation, known as AZP Group until 1987. Pinnacl ...
.[
Malapai purchased the Irigaray site from Westinghouse in June 1987, and resumed operations. The Christensen Ranch satellite ion exchange plant and its associated well fields were included under the same license in 1988. The Irigaray project was then upgraded to include facilities for processing ion exchange resin from Christensen Ranch, and the flow rate of the Irigaray recovery plant was increased to 2,400 gallons per minute capacity. Operations under Malapai continued until February 1990.][
In 1990, Malapai was sold to Electricité de France (EdF), a French state nuclear utility. Operations resumed in 1991. In 1993 another French state-owned company, COGEMA Mining Inc. (now called Areva), acquired EdF's properties in Wyoming and Texas and continued the in-situ recovery operation until June 2000. In April 2007, COGEMA applied to recommence operations, which was approved on 30 September 2008.][
On 25 January 2010, Uranium One USA, Inc. bought COGEMA's US assets. The NRC approved the return to active uranium recovery operations at Willow Creek, in December 2010. On 27 December 2010, Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation completed the purchase of Uranium One.][
]
Reserves
As of December 31, 2016 Willow Creek had proven and probable reserves of 6.49 million tonnes of ore grading 0.036% uranium (6.09 million pounds U3O8).
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Willow Creek Mine
Uranium mines in the United States
Mines in Wyoming