State gives Anfield go-ahead for Velvet-Wood Mine construction in San Juan County

Anfield Energy officers gather with state and local officials for a Nov. 6 groundbreaking ceremony at the Velvet-Wood Mine in San Juan County. With all federal and state permitting in place, the mine’s operators expect infrastructure construction to begin soon. (Photo courtesy Anfield Energy)

The Utah Department of Oil, Gas and Mining (DOGM) has issued a permit to allow construction to begin for the reopening of a uranium mine in the Lisbon Valley, about 30 miles from Monticello in San Juan County. 

The permit will allow Canadian-based Anfield Energy to operate the Velvet-Wood Mine once infrastructure and access construction is complete. 

Following a Nov. 6 groundbreaking ceremony at the mine, Anfield said it would begin work at the site, in extreme eastern Utah near the Colorado border, almost immediately.

The U.S. Department of the Interior approved the environmental permit for Velvet-Wood in May, as it was previously selected as part of the federal government’s national response to the energy emergency declared by President Donald Trump in January. Being chosen for the emergency procedures resulted in an accelerated environmental review by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) with a completion timeline of 14 days, BLM completed its assessment early, paving the way for mining operation to begin once state permitting was complete.

The Velvet-Wood project was the first in the nation to undergo the Trump-ordered accelerated review process. At that time, industry sources told the Business Journal that a normal timetable for an environmental assessment of a new mine by the federal government is at least a year and has taken as much as five years in the past.

“We are very pleased to receive approval from the Utah Department of Oil, Gas and Mining for our Velvet-Wood project,” said Corey Dias, CEO of Anfield Energy. “Having achieved this critical milestone, Anfield’s path is now clear to advance the Velvet-Wood Mine to construction and, ultimately, to production. This reinforces our view that Velvet-Wood’s status as a past-producing uranium and vanadium mine with a small environmental footprint is advantageous to the company’s aim to pursue near-term production. The company will now pivot to advancing the project through the construction phase of its plan.

“With the plethora of nuclear energy-related executive orders released by the administration in 2025, the path to sustained U.S. nuclear growth is being established, and Anfield’s portfolio of uranium assets are well positioned to contribute to the fuel cycle,” Dias continued.

Anfield said that immediate plans at the mine, which is being built on the site of an older mine that closed in the 1980s, include reopening the mine portal, dewatering of deeper portions of the mine, construction of surface facilities, underground inspections and construction of a new incline into the mine.

When the Velvet-Wood Mine was selected for accelerated permitting, Anfield announced that it also plans to restart its Shootaring Canyon uranium mill, 45 miles south of Hanksville in Wayne County — one of only three licensed, permitted and constructed conventional uranium mills in the country — to extract uranium from Velvet-Wood ore.

Dias said that Anfield will be required to post a bond with the Bureau of Land Management assuring post-mining restoration of the area.

Anfield acquired the Velvet-Wood Mine from Uranium One in 2015. Between 1979 and 1984, Atlas Minerals mined approximately 400,000 tons of ore from the deposit, recovering approximately 4 million pounds of uranium (U3O8) and 5 million pounds of vanadium (V2O5).

Anfield is a uranium and vanadium development and near-term production company that is a publicly traded corporation listed on Nasdaq, TSX Venture Exchange and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.