Uranium prices may be high, but the cost to mine the radioactive material is higher, leading Cotter Corp. to lay off close to 50 miners in southwestern Colorado and give notice to almost 80 more in Cañon City.
Denver-based Cotter restarted four mines southwest of Montrose in the past year, banking on rising prices for uranium used for nuclear energy and for vanadium used in steel hardening. Uranium sold as high as $33.25 per pound at the end of October after selling for as low as $7.50 a pound in 2001. Vanadium has jumped from less than $2 per pound to around $13 now.
No ore is being extracted from the four mines right now, said Cotter spokesman Jerry Powers.
“Costs have increased all around, so we have to find a way to be more economical. There’s a possibility we could continue operating,” he said. “We’re regrouping, because the prices are still up.”
Recent high kerosene and diesel fuel prices have been hard on the company, Powers said.
In addition, Cotter’s ore must go through a more expensive milling process because of the nature of the mine sites. Competing uranium-mining operations are able to use cheaper extraction methods using sulfuric acid at the sites, he said.
News of the layoffs have hit hard in the towns of Nucla and Naturita, where the mines are located, said Mary Helen de Koevend, Nucla’s mayor.
“It’s not good for our community, because it means sales tax (revenue) will go down,” deKoe vend said. “The people who bought houses will be moving out.”
In general, the outlook for uranium looks good, with the demand for nuclear energy still rising, said Stuart Sanderson, president of the Colorado Mining Association.
Only 100 million pounds of uranium have been produced in recent years, even though the world’s 435 nuclear reactors, including 104 in the United States, need 180 million pounds annually.
Miners in Colorado earn about $70,000 a year on average, Sanderson said.
Staff writer Beth Potter can be reached at 303-820-1503 or bpotter@denverpost.com.
