Uranium mine could open in 2012, shaft started on another

Denison Mines expects to begin production of uranium from its Pinenut mine in northern Arizona in 2012, and begin sinking a shaft 1,400 feet to the Canyon mine deposit in the 4th quarter of 2012, according to a company investment presentation.

The Pinenut mine is just east of the company's operating Arizona #1 mine. The Canyon mine will be about 6 miles southeast of the town of Tusayan [right, credit Denison Mines]. An article in the Arizona (Flagstaff) Daily Sun yesterday, summarized key aspects of the mine, noting it will involve a vertical shaft 900 to 1,400 feet deep, to produce about 200 tons of ore a day, to go a mill in Blanding, Utah. The mine life is estimated at 5 years. Surface disturbance would affect about 17 acres.

The Arizona Dept. of Environmental Quality fact sheet notes that in August 1986, "the U.S. Forest Service published a final Environmental Impact Statement with a Finding of No Significant Impact for the proposed mining activities at the Canyon Mine site."