Utah is the second largest vanadium producing state and the third largest uranium producing state in the United States. Carnotite, a primary ore mineral for both vanadium and uranium, was first discovered and used by Native Americans as a source of pigment in the Colorado Plateau hysiographic province of eastern Utah. Radioactive deposits have been ommercially mined in Utah since about 1900, starting with radium, followed by vanadium, and thenuranium. In 1952, the discovery of the Mi Vida mine in Utah’s Lisbon Valley mining district in San Juan County kicked off a uranium exploration rush across the Colorado Plateau. As a result, the United States dominated the global uranium market from the early 1950s to late 1970s. In the modern mining era, Utah is an important contributor to the domestic uranium and vanadium markets with the only operating conventional uranium-vanadium mill in the country, multiple uranium-vanadium mines on standby, and active uranium-vanadium exploration. Overall, Utah has produced an estimated 122 million lbs U3O8 and 136 million lbs V2O5 since 1904. Most of this production has been from the sandstone-hosted deposits of the Paradox Basin, with minor production from volcanogenic deposits and as byproducts from other operations across the state
Critical Minerals and Energy–Impacts and Limitations of Moving to Unconventional Resources
