Uranium exploration permit approved, 7.6 million pounds could be mined

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

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PIERRE -- A state board Wednesday approved the first uranium exploration permit issued in more than a quarter century in South Dakota -- despite the tearful objections of a American Indian activist from Rapid City.

Charmaine White Face of Defenders of the Black Hills urged the Board of Minerals and Environment to protect “Mother Earth” by denying the permit. “She is alive, and when you drill these holes in her, you are hurting her,” White Face said at a hearing in Pierre.

“Your testimony was very moving,” board chairman Richard Sweetman of Sioux Falls told White Face. “I think I understand what you were saying.”

But Sweetman said Powertech met all the state’s criteria for the exploration permit.

The board voted unanimously to allow Powertech Uranium Corp. to drill 155 exploration holes in Custer and Fall River counties.

Powertech president Richard Clement said his company hopes to recover 7.6 million pounds of uranium from the Dewey and Burdock areas, about 13 miles north of Edgemont in the southwestern corner of the Black Hills.

Clement said the operation could employ 100 to 150 people.

Powertech also has interests in Weston County, Wyo., just across the state line, and near Aladdin, Wyo. Clement predicted that eastern Wyoming and western South Dakota would play a significant role in the uranium-mining boom throughout the West.

Pressure to develop domestic energy sources has driven the price of uranium from $7 or $8 a pound seven years ago to $72 a pound today, Clement said. At that price, 7.6 million pounds would bring $547.2 million.

There are three long-abandoned uranium surface mines in the Dewey-Burdock area, but Powertech will use “solution mining” -- pumping a solution into deep holes to dissolve uranium, then pumping the “pregnant” solution out another set of holes.

The process is not new. It’s already being used to recover uranium at Crow Butte, near Crawford. But solution mining -- also called in situ leach mining -- has never been used to recover uranium in South Dakota.

The Board of Minerals and Environment meets today in Pierre to work out new situ mining regulations that were ordered last year by state Legislature.

Dick Fort of Lawrence County, who is founder of ACTion for the Environment, also was at the hearing Wednesday to oppose the permits.

Fort also tried to persuade the minerals board to postpone approving the exploration permits until after the new regulations were adopted. The new mining rules might affect the way exploration is carried out, he said. “What’s the big hurry?” he asked.

Deputy attorney general Roxanne Giedd said the new mining rules would have no impact on exploration.

Giedd also said Powertech had met all state requirements for an exploration permit. The company will post a $213,500 bond to guarantee reclamation of the exploration holes, which will be 400 to 600 feet deep.

“This is an ominous decision,” Fort said after the meeting. He’ll attend the uranium-mining rules hearing today, with White Face and other opponents of in situ mining.

But John Putnam, whose family has ranched near Dewey for a century, spoke in favor of the permits. Powertech is leasing the right to drill 11 exploratory holes on his ranch.

Putnam, who drove all the way from Dewey and sat through a five-hour hearing to say one sentence in support of the permit, is also a strong supporter of developing nuclear power plants.

“We can either be all huddled in the cold alone, or we can do something about the power situation in this country,” he said. “Nuclear power is safe, it’s reliable, and we’re crazy if we don’t do something about it.”

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