The Uranium Energy Corp’s Sweetwater Uranium Complex has been designated for fast-tracked permitting by the U.S. Government. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has confirmed “significant” year-on-year growth in the nation’s uranium industry, both in output and employment.
2024 production of six hundred and seventy seven thousand pounds of U3O8 was a “significant increase” from 2023 production of fifty thousand pounds U3O8, according to the Energy Information Administration’s Domestic Uranium Production Report, published on the 5th of August.
Exploration drilling during 2024 of one thousand three hundred and twenty-four holes with total footage of six hundred and thirteen thousand was up considerably from the eight hundred and seventy holes totaling five hundred and twelve thousand feet drilled in 2023. Development drilling of two thousand sixty-two holes with total footage of one million two hundred and sixty thousand feet was also up from one thousand fifty-three holes and five hundred and fifty-six thousand feet in 2023. Exploration and development drilling activities in 2023 hit the highest levels since 2013, both for number of holes drilled and for total footage drilled, the EIA said.
At the end of 2024, the Shootaring Canyon Uranium Mill in Utah and the Sweetwater Processing Plant, in Wyoming, were on standby, while the White Mesa Mill in Utah began processing ore using an alternative feed. The Sheep Mountain in Wyoming heap leach facility reached a partial permitting and licensed stage. In-situ recovery (ISR) facilities at the Alta Mesa Project, Rosita Project, Lost Creek Project, the Smith Ranch-Highland Operation, Ross Central Processing Project, and Willow Creek Project were all operating at the end of last year, with a combined capacity of fourteen million pounds U3O8 per year. This is up significantly from the a nuclear industry-wide ISR capacity of seven and a half million pounds in 2023.
Total employment in the U.S. uranium production industry was five hundred and six 506 full-time person-years in 2024, up from three hundred and forty 340 full-time person-years in 2023 and the highest employment total since 2016.
Total expenditure for land, exploration, drilling, production, and reclamation of one hundred and sixty million dollars in 2024, up from one hundred and seven million dollars in 2023, was the highest since 2016.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration is a statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Uranium Energy Corp’s (UEC) Sweetwater ISR project is the most recent to be designated as a “transparency project” by the U.S. Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (the “Steering Council”) as part of the implementation of a presidential Executive Order on Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production, issued last March.
The Executive Order directed federal agencies to fast-track permitting for certain critical infrastructure and mineral projects selected by the Steering Council. Sweetwater has been chosen for fast-tracking and added to the FAST-41 transparency dashboard, the company said. FAST-41 is a federal infrastructure permitting initiative created under Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act.
Amir Adnani is the UEC President and CEO. He said that Sweetwater’s selection “reinforces its national importance as a key project to achieve the United States’ goals of establishing reliable infrastructure, supporting nuclear fuel independence.
UEC purchased Sweetwater from Rio Tinto in 2024. It is to be UEC’s third “hub-and-spoke” production platform, according to Adnan. “On completing this tack-on permitting initiative, Sweetwater will be the largest dual-feed uranium facility in the United States, licensed to process both conventional ore and ISR resin.”.
The Sweetwater Complex includes the Sweetwater Processing Plant, a fully licensed and permitted three thousand tons per day conventional uranium mill. With an existing licensed capacity of four million pounds of U3O8 per year, UEC said completion of the ISR permitting initiative will allow it to become the largest licensed uranium production facility in the U.S. with dual-feed capability.