ANALYSIS: Uranium economics report ” Mining or environment?

ANALYSIS: Uranium economics report — Mining or environment?

By Dick Kamp
Wick Communications Environmental Liaison
MONTROSE COUNTY — Three types of economic studies have tended to surface over the past decade to characterize the impacts of a mine or natural resource extraction project, such as the proposed Energy Fuels (EF) Piñon Ridge yellowcake uranium mill.

One of those studies compares actual economic development in a region to the impacts of an extraction project; a second tends to be a pro-industry “booster” study that touts the local employment and economic impacts of a project, while the third — and rarest — looks at the actual economic viability of the project.

The nonprofit Sonoran Institute’s (SI) July, 2009 “Uranium Mining, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation in Gateway, Colorado” is a comparison of Mesa County and Gateway, Colorado’s economic development and the economic impacts of uranium mining. It is an example of the first type of study.

The report was paid for, in large part, by the Gateway Canyons Resort, whose owner, John Hendricks, has been concerned about potentially negative impacts of the nearby EF Whirlwind Mine and the Piñon Ridge Mill.

Gateway’s Web site states that Hendricks’ goal is to “create a sustainable, scenic-based recreation economy designed to replace the area’s long-lost mining economy. “

Report author Josef Marlow is an Arizona-based mining geologist and mineral economist who has worked in the southwest for AMAX exploring copper deposits and for Freeport McMoran exploring for gold.

“I’ve worked on land looking for copper and gold that has been worked countless times before, much like in the Uravan district in the West End which has had four or five boom-bust cycles,” he said.

“There you’ll find thousands of holes going back to the 1890s and Madame Curie’s search for uranium.”

Marlow is quick to point out that “SI takes no position on whether mining in the region is good or bad.”

He also says that boom-and-bust uranium mining, when compared to attracting retirees, tourism — particularly outdoor recreation types — and clean industry, is an unreliable source of income for a county or rural communities.

http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2009/09/20/news/doc4ab309bc1c9ff641873762.txt