Anfield Energy Inc is a company that specializes in uranium and vanadium production. Their team is comprised of professionals from diverse backgrounds who are collectively working towards a common goal of fueling carbon-free, sustainable clean energy solutions. They are optimally positioned to harness the energy of the future. They have developed an innovative hub-and-spoke production strategy that leverages the unique characteristics of the Shootaring Mill in uranium-vanadium production.
Anfield has submitted its plan to reactivate production at the Shootaring Canyon uranium mill to the State of Utah's Department of Environmental Quality. The Vancouver-based company said it is scheduling the mill restart for 2026 - it has been on standby since 1982.
The plan covers an increase in mill throughput capacity to one thousand tons of ore per day from seven hundred and fifty tons per day. This amounts to an increase in annual uranium production capacity to three million pounds from one million pounds. The Shootaring mill is one of only three licensed, permitted and constructed conventional uranium mills in the USA.
The company issued a statement that read, “The plan addresses the updating the mill's radioactive materials license from its current standby status to operational status and the increasing of both throughput capacity and the tripling of licensed production capacity. Following approval of the reactivation plan and mill refurbishment, Anfield will be able to both recommence uranium production and start vanadium production in 2026 - joining a select group of North American and US uranium producers meeting the resurgence in uranium demand.”
Anfield purchased the Shootaring Canyon mill in 2015. The conventional acid-leach facility had been owned and operated by Uranium One since 2007. However, the Canadian-based and Russian-owned company's mining operations are focused on in-situ leach production methods. The mill was built in 1980 and commenced operations in 1982. It operated for about six months, before operations ceased due to the depressed price of uranium. During its time of operation, it produced and sold two thousand eight hundred and twenty-five pounds of U3O8. Surface stockpiles at the facility include an estimated three hundred and seventy thousand pounds of U3O8 at an average grade of 0.147 percent. Anfield agreed in August 2014 to purchase the mill and a portfolio of uranium assets from Uranium One in a deal worth five million dollars.
Anfield said that early-stage refurbishment of Shootaring will take place during the review of the restart application. This will prepare the company to complete refurbishment as soon as the restart application is approved.
Corey Dias is the CEO of Anfield. He said, “We at Anfield are very proud of achieving the important milestone of submitting the production restart application for Shootaring. This is an achievement which has taken close to eighteen months of engineering and design input to complete and it caps a decade of methodical and strategic progression in asset development.
Dias added that “Since acquiring the Shootaring Canyon mill in 2015, we have maintained the facility, waiting for the right market conditions to return the mill to production status. With uranium reaching highs of greater than USD100 per pound earlier this year, and a global environment in which demand is expected to continue outstripping supply, we believe this is the ideal time to advance our uranium assets to production.”