KGWN –Cheyenne, WY– Scottsbluff, NE News,Weather, SportsUranium Energy Big Part of Wyoming's Future

Uranium Energy Big Part of Wyoming's Future

Representatives from Canadian based Crosshair Energy Corporation were in town to discuss uranium mining in the state with Governor Mead.

Wyoming has one of the largest uranium deposits in the country. Crosshair Energy has already begun it's exploration and development stage in southeast Wyoming. The next focus will be to write permits and begin mining. It's a process that takes about three years.

"Our projects are currently in the east part of the Shirley Basin in Albany County and just outside Baggs. The Juniper Ridge property," Stewart Wallis, President/CEO of Crosshair, said.

Extracting uranium involves injecting oxygenated water into the ground and then it dissolves uranium and you pump it back out.

It's a process that is not hard on the environment.

"So it's a very small footprint, a few well hands and a small garage with pumps and that's it's. It's proven to be safe," Wallis said.

Drilling for uranium in southeast Wyoming would mean more jobs. 20 to 30 people would be employed at each well year round.

"You're employing drillers. Drill rigs. Overall you're going to have a capital cost of each mine in the neighborhood of $40 to $50 million," Wallis said.

Uranium is one of the cleanest energies and Wyoming uranium could play a big part in the future of energy.

"If you want to eliminate greenhouse gases. One of the more reasonable cost alternatives is uranium energy as opposed to wind power and solar power, which are currently subsidized," Wallis said.