BY BRIAN MAFFLY
The White Canyon mining district yielded thousands of tons of uranium ore during the Cold War, but the area west of Blanding has gone silent in recent years, thanks to collapsing interest in nuclear power.
But one company remains bullish on Utah's uranium deposits and hopes to greatly expand its idled operations at a San Juan County mine that happens to be in the heart of the proposed Bears Ears National Monument.
Energy Fuels Resources' (EFR) Daneros Mine, located in a narrow canyon spilling off the west side of Cedar Mesa, began producing uranium ore in 2010 and yielded 123,000 tons before shutting down in October 2012, when the price of uranium oxide slid in the wake of the Fukushima meltdown...