Uranium shows signs of Hills comeback

By Bill Harlan, Journal staff | Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

PIERRE - Uranium exploration could begin anew in the southwestern Black Hills, and a uranium mining technique new to South Dakota could make its debut.

Environmental groups oppose both developments, which are a response to rekindled interest in nuclear power and a boom in uranium exploration in Western states.

The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources will hold hearings on the two issues today and Thursday in Pierre.

Powertech Uranium Corp., based in Vancouver, British Columbia, has applied for a permit to drill 155 exploratory holes northwest of Edgemont, in the Dewey-Burdock area.

Defenders of the Black Hills and ACTion for the Environment - both based in the Black Hills - already have filed formal objections to the permits.

Charmaine White Face of Rapid City, representing Defenders of the Black Hills, said one objection to the exploratory permits will be that the permit is to be granted before the public can comment on mining regulations related to uranium.

Those new regulations will get a hearing Thursday in Pierre. They are related to a process called "in situ leach mining," a process already in use in Wyoming and Nebraska but new to South Dakota.

Mike Cepak, natural resources engineering director for the DENR, said in situ mining has long been allowed in South Dakota. Last year, however, the Legislature passed a law authorizing the DENR to make rules for the technique.

The process involves drilling two sets of deep holes. A solution pumped down one set of holes dissolves uranium. The "pregnant" uranium solution is pumped out another set of holes. Uranium is extracted from the solution, which is recharged and pumped back into the field.

Monitor wells detect whether the solution has left the area.

The solution contains oxygen and carbon dioxide. "They aren't deadly chemicals," Cepak said.

Still, Cepak agreed there was a risk of groundwater contamination - not so much from radioactivity as from metals such as selenium and arsenic - though he added that the industry has developed ways to restore groundwater.

The Environmental Working Group, based in Washington, D.C., released a study last month showing the price of uranium had more than tripled in three years. The study also concluded that uranium companies were among the largest claimholders in seven western states, including South Dakota and Wyoming.

Last week, in fact, Powertech announced it had also acquired another 3,000 acres of mining leases in Crook County, Wyo. The company now owns 13,590 acres in the county.

Uranium has not been mined in South Dakota since the early 1970s, Cepak said. There was a uranium mill in Edgemont, and uranium also was mined in northwestern South Dakota.

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or at bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com

Pierre Uranium hearings

A hearing on a permit for Powertech Uranium Corp. to drill 155 exploratory holes northwest of Edgemont will be at 1 p.m. CST today at DENR headquarters in the Joe Foss Building at 523 East Capitol in Pierre.

There will be a hearing at 9 a.m. Thursday at the same location on new state rules for a uranium-mining technique called "in situ leach mining."

A draft of the new rules is available online at http://www.state.sd.us/denr/DES/Mining/draftinsituregs.htm