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Denison Mines (DML.TO) said on Tuesday it will suspend the McClean Lake uranium processing mill in mid-2010, following the halting of nearby uranium projects that were destined to supply it with ore. The mill -- a joint venture of Canada's Denison and France's Areva (CEPFi.PA) -- will continue to process stockpiled uranium until it closes, and should produce 1.86 million pounds of uranium before it goes on "care and maintenance" in July, Denison said.

Denison Mines (DML.TO) said on Tuesday it will suspend the McClean Lake uranium processing mill in mid-2010, following the halting of nearby uranium projects that were destined to supply it with ore. The mill -- a joint venture of Canada's Denison and France's Areva (CEPFi.PA) -- will continue to process stockpiled uranium until it closes, and should produce 1.86 million pounds of uranium before it goes on "care and maintenance" in July, Denison said.

Uranium mining could resume within the year at a site north of the Grand Canyon after state officials signed off on the last permit needed to restart operations. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality issued an air-quality permit Tuesday to Denison Mines for the Arizona 1 mine, about 35 miles south of Fredonia. The permit clears the way for Denison to extract uranium from the region for the first time in almost two decades. Denison officials have said they could restart Arizona 1 within a year after the final permit is issued. The prospect of new uranium mines on public lands near the national park has stirred opposition among conservation groups and Indian tribes, who say extracting the ore could contaminate groundwater and the Colorado River, which serves millions of people downstream.

Denison Mines Corp., a Canadian uranium producer, agreed to sell a 19.9 percent stake in the company to Korea Electric Power Corp. for C$75.4 million ($62.1 million) and supply the utility with uranium until 2015. Korea Electric will buy about 58 million Denison shares for C$1.30 each, equal to yesterday's closing price, Denison said in a statement. The agreement requires the Toronto-based mining company to sell as much as 690,000 pounds of enriched uranium a year to the state-controlled utility starting in 2010.

"A uranium mine north of the Grand Canyon is operating in violation of the law, and its owner could face thousands of dollars in fines as a result, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said. The agency issued a notice of violation this week to Denison Mines Corp. for its Arizona 1 Mine, which is about 20 miles from the Grand Canyon's northern border. The EPA said Denison failed to notify the agency as to when it would resume mining and that it did not secure the necessary federal approval before ventilating the mine or testing emissions."

The Whirlwind uranium mine near Gateway has been placed on standby, or temporarily closed, a result of plummeting uranium prices. The move furloughed five miners temporarily, said Gary Steele, vice president of corporate marketing for Energy Fuels Inc., the owner and operator of the mine, which received its permit in September. "We were never actually in production," because the company hadn't yet reached an agreement with the Denison Mine in Blanding, Steele said. "We had no mill outlet for our ore." After the price of uranium went from a peak of $138 a pound in early 2007 to $44 a pound recently, "Denison couldn't read the tea leaves any better than we could," Steele said. It's now back up to around $55 a pound. "It's difficult to make commitments in the face of a free-falling market."

The Bureau of Land Management inked an approval for expanded uranium mining in the Big Gypsum Valley last Friday, agreeing to a proposal brought forth from Denison Mines Corporation, a Canadian company. New activities at the Sunday Mining complex - which lies near Naturita - will include the expansion of waste rock areas and the addition of vent holes along with access roads and additional drilling. The existing land disturbance at the complex is about 80 acres; the proposed new surface disturbance would affect about 20 additional acres of public land in the area. According to the BLM, the Denison Mines Corporation acquired the entire mining complex - it was multiple mines before - and will run it as one operation.

Environmental groups have given notice that they'll sue the federal Bureau of Land Management over its decision to allow a uranium mine to reopen near the Grand Canyon. Canadian mining company Denison Mines Corp. says it could reopen its mine about 20 miles north of the canyon by the end of the year. Dennison received the final state permit it needed last week. The BLM says Denison has an approved mine plan and should be allowed to resume operations after closing the site about 20 years ago. But the Center for Biological Diversity, the Grand Canyon Trust and the Sierra Club argue that the BLM is relying on an old environmental analysis and isn't considering potential impacts on endangered species. The notice the groups filed Tuesday says they plan to file a lawsuit in 60 days.

"Conservationists are challenging a federal court decision that denied their request to halt uranium mining north of the Grand Canyon. Three conservation groups and two American Indian tribes filed an appeal last week to the June 17 decision. Denison Mines Corp. operates a uranium mine 6 miles north of Grand Canyon National Park on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land. Environmentalists sued the BLM last year, alleging Denison's mine plan and environmental analyses are outdated. They filed for a preliminary injunction earlier this year to stop the mining operation until the lawsuit is heard. "

South Korea's state-run power company has bought a 17-percent stake in a Canadian uranium producer, securing a stable source of fuel for its nuclear power plants, a report said. Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) acquired the stake from Canada's Denison Mines Corp for 68 million dollars, Yonhap news agency said. KEPCO has also signed an agreement on a strategic alliance with the Canadian company, it said. The deal will allow KEPCO to buy about 300 tons of uranium a year between 2010 and 2015, or nearly eight percent of South Korea's annual uranium consumption, it said.

A coalition of environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Monday challenging a Utah company's plans to begin uranium mining operations within 10 miles of Grand Canyon National Park. The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Grand Canyon Trust claim the Bureau of Land Management is using an old environmental assessment from 1988 in allowing Denison Mines to begin operations at the "Arizona 1" mine. "The Bureau of Land Management's refusal to redo outdated environmental reviews is as illegal as it is unethical," said Taylor McKinnon, public lands campaigns director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "It should be eager to protect the Grand Canyon and its endangered species; instead, it has chosen to shirk environmental review on behalf of the uranium industry."

A coalition of environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Monday challenging a Utah company's plans to begin uranium mining operations within 10 miles of Grand Canyon National Park. The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Grand Canyon Trust claim the Bureau of Land Management is using an old environmental assessment from 1988 in allowing Denison Mines to begin operations at the "Arizona 1" mine. "The Bureau of Land Management's refusal to redo outdated environmental reviews is as illegal as it is unethical," said Taylor McKinnon, public lands campaigns director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "It should be eager to protect the Grand Canyon and its endangered species; instead, it has chosen to shirk environmental review on behalf of the uranium industry."

Toronto-based Denison Mines Corp. shut down the Tony mine in southern Utah on Tuesday due to slumping uranium prices but is opening another Utah mine that has higher grades of uranium. Company President Ron Hochstein said the Beaver Shaft mine in San Juan County also has deposits of vanadium, which is used in steel alloys, and yields better uranium ore than the Tony mine in Garfield County. The decision to close the Tony mine was made because of market conditions, he said.

Environment » Public input is sought on the air-quality effects. A public input period is under way to comment on an air-quality permit for the Pandora uranium mine in La Sal, San Juan County. "It's really just dotting I's and crossing T's," said Ron Hochstein, president and chief executive officer of Canada-based Denison Mines Corp. Maung Maung, an engineer with the Utah Division of Air Quality, said the biggest concern for the state is the amount of dust that could be created with trucks hauling ore from the mine. The company, which is bringing the historic mine back on line, is required to keep the dust down with water. Under the proposed permit, emissions are limited to 9.8 tons per year of PM10, .5 tons of nitrogen oxides, .043 tons of sulphur dioxide, .11 tons of carbon monoxide and .04 tons of volatile organic compounds. Radon emissions are governed by federal law. "They're just mining it and shipping it off to where they are going to process it," Maung said. Moab-based Uranium Watch has requested a hearing.

The CEO of Energy Fuels, George Glasier, holds up a tiny pellet, smaller than a ping-pong ball, to illustrate his point. This pellet of nuclear fuel, he says, is the equivalent of five gallons of oil, one railroad car, or 100 tons of coal. Behind this small finished pellet, however, is a long and expensive chain of production, from mining the uranium ore, to milling it into concentrated yellowcake that will travel across the country to be refined again into pellets that are placed into a fuel rod and used in a nuclear reactor. Right now, the price of uranium is too low to support that chain of production, according to Denison Mines President Ron Hochstein. Hochstein said that Denison's White Mesa Mill, the nation's only operating uranium mill, has ceased its regular milling operations for the remainder of 2009. "We will stop processing conventional ore through 2009, but will be processing alternate feedstock on a reduced scale, and we'll be laying off some personnel," said Hochstein. "Our costs are higher than the current spot price." Hochstein was upbeat about the future of the uranium market, and his company already has processing contracts in place for 2011, when he expects that the spot price of uranium will again make it profitable to process the radioactive material.

"Denison Mines President Ron Hochstein said uranium mining has returned to northern Arizona for the first time in nearly 20 years. Hochstein said while environmental groups attempted to stop the uranium mining in Mohave County, Ariz., with a lawsuit last September, his company obtained permission from state and Bureau of Land Management officials to mine for high-grade ore, The (Flagstaff) Arizona Daily Sun said Wednesday. "They're challenging the permits, but the BLM and state have given us all the permits we need to operate," Hochstein insists."