Noticias

• West End Uranium Mining Heats Up
• Venture Into Dance
• Colorado Lawmakers Wrap Up Special Session

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West End Uranium Mining Heats Up

When President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year to “unleash American energy,” he called uranium a critical mineral. That perked the ears of a small group of miners across the American West.

Like many minerals, uranium is highly dependent on markets. It doesn’t make sense to mine unless prices are high enough. The spot price of uranium jumped to $100 in January when Trump took office, the highest in five years. It has since stabilized around $70, and now uranium miners are looking to cash in.

It’s a sunny afternoon in the West End of San Miguel County, Colorado. Tucked into the side of Big Gypsum Canyon, a couple miles north of the Dolores River, sits the Sunday Mine Uranium Complex, an area that has produced uranium ore since the 1970s.

Behind it all is George Glasier, CEO of Western Uranium and Vanadium. A Nucla resident, Glasier has spent most of his life in the uranium business. He helped build the only operating uranium mill in the country, the White Mesa Mill, and founded Energy Fuels, the company behind it.

After entering the main portal of Sunday Mines, visitors spend 20 minutes driving underground. Turning on headlamps reveals a massive room dotted with piles of uranium ore.

“That’s oxidized uranium, whereas black that’s probably uranium vanadium. It oxidizes with air, turns yellow,” Glasier said.

Mining for uranium is part science, part art. Glasier and his crew of miners seek out seams of uranium through horizontal exploration drilling and probing to find a millable grade of ore—about a quarter of a percent of uranium per 5 pounds per ton of rock.

Bruce Norquist, general manager of mining operations at Sunday Mines, waved a Geiger counter around like a metal detector.

“This is in micro R per hour, but it’s still measuring gamma. We do everything—most of our probes for ore control are in percent uranium—but this will tell me whether it’s hot or not,” Norquist said. “It’s funny, when you see the yellow you see the gamma meter go up and obviously our U308 probes go up. Then you can get into zones that don’t look like nothing and you go on it and it gets even higher. Then you go into a black zone that looks like ore and it’s nothing. So it’s quite variable, but overall the average is a millable grade.”

Glasier and his team have been stockpiling uranium ore underground since 2023, betting that prices would rise so they could sell it to the White Mesa Mill for processing. That time has arrived. Glasier finalized an ore purchase agreement with Energy Fuels for the delivery of up to 25,000 tons of uranium ore over one year.

In a press release, the company said about 792 tons of material has been delivered just across the state line at White Mesa in recent months. It’s an interesting relationship, given that Glasier helped build the mill and later bought the Sunday Mines back from Energy Fuels.

“They probably regret selling these things, because these are some of their best,” Glasier said. “I think we’re friends.”

Glasier has said he plans to open another uranium mill with his company, either in Utah or in nearby Paradox Valley.

What’s clear is that Glasier has a lot of ore. With Trump touting domestic energy production, he said his mining crew has doubled since last year and will double again if uranium prices climb higher. Most of his crew, Glasier said, are locals from the West End.

“I think you’re going to need domestic production here,” Glasier said. “We’ve got demand of 50 million pounds and growing in the United States, and a lot of the uranium is produced in the world in Africa. Don’t even know if they’re going to be able to ship to us. The Russians, Niger was a big uranium producer. The French had a big mine there and they kicked them out.”

The White Mesa Mill in Blanding, Utah, operated by Energy Fuels, has long drawn criticism from the neighboring White Mesa Ute community and environmentalists.

In a recent letter signed by more than 20 organizations to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, they wrote: “This practice perpetuates environmental harm and systemic injustice against Indigenous peoples who have long borne the disproportionate impacts of the nuclear industry.”

Despite shipments of uranium ore to Utah, Western Uranium and Vanadium said: “Given recent turbulence in global commodity and financial markets, along with geopolitical uncertainties, we have shifted to a more conservative stance, increasingly focusing on cost control.”

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Venture Into Dance

Emily Speed’s mom put her in dance class as a young child.

“I just really connect with the movement. I had a lot of energy then, and it was a way for me to channel it in a way that felt really wonderful and productive,” she said.

Speed is the founder, artistic director, and a dancer for the Boulder-based dance company Artistic Ventures in Dance, or AVID.

“For me, dance is a way of expressing myself. There’s an athletic component, which I really enjoy as well. But I think, for me, what really connects me with dance is the ability to express myself through movement,” she said.

Next week, AVID Dance will be in the region for a performance of their show boundless.

“We are a contemporary ballet company. We do a wide range of repertoire from classical ballet and then all the way to really new choreography that was created on the company. Some of our choreographers have even collaborated with composers to create new music for this show,” Speed said.

One of those composers is AVID resident composer Anne-Marie Keane. She helped create the piece human.

“What Anne-Marie did that was even the next step in that collaboration was she asked the dancers to record our voices and she included the cast in this score. So, you’ll hear within the score our voices. This piece goes through a lot of emotions and different emotions and the phases of processing something. You’ll hear in one of the sections, quite distinctly, each dancer’s voice, which I think is quite special,” she said.

Speed notes AVID is a beautiful blend of the classic training and skill of ballet, with more contemporary movement.

“I think what’s really special about the legacy of classical ballet is that it has been passed down through generations and there’s this beautiful handing down of the tradition, and that’s one of my favorite parts,” she said. “But within that classical art form, and in the history of ballet, a lot of folk dances has been used, and so we’re not really changing the fact that ballet has always taken from folk or street dance—we’re just using a more modern version of those dance styles and bringing it to ballet. That also makes it more relatable to audiences today because it’s dance styles they’re more familiar with.”

For those who are maybe new to a ballet performance, Speed says not to worry.

“There’s a lot of variety in the pieces, so if you don’t like one of them, I can guarantee you will like something. There’s something about each one of these pieces that speaks to audiences and relates to audiences. I also think a lot of dances are extremely approachable. Nothing gets too long or too stuffy. We have a lot of fun, and we really hope you’ll join us,” she said.

The AVID Dance Company will be performing in Ouray at the Wright Opera House on Wednesday, Sept. 3, and in Telluride on Friday, Sept. 5, at the Palm Theatre.

Tickets are available at aviddance.org.

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Colorado Lawmakers Wrap Up Special Session

Colorado lawmakers were back in Denver for a special legislative session, which wrapped up on Tuesday.

In an end-of-session installment of Capitol Conversation, statehouse reporter Lucas Brady Woods shares what took place.

Story begins at 9:55.

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Red Mountain Pass to Close for Power Line Work

Drivers should expect lengthy road closures on U.S. Highway 550 over Red Mountain Pass in the coming weeks.

According to the Colorado Department of Transportation, San Miguel Power Association will be conducting electrical power work, including power line reconstruction.

Northbound traffic (from Silverton) will come to a full stop at the north end of Ironton Park, at mile marker 87.5.
Southbound traffic (from Ouray) will be stopped at Bear Creek Falls Overlook, at mile marker 90.

Crews will maintain through access from Ouray to County Road 18 (Engineer Pass/Alpine Loop) during the closures; however, the number of vehicles and trailers will be limited.

The work requires full closures from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and will take place Tuesdays through Thursdays, Sept. 2 through 18.

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52nd Telluride Film Festival Brings Global Cinema to the San Juans

Hollywood has come to Telluride once again for the 52nd annual Telluride Film Festival.

Film Fest announced its official program on Thursday.

This year’s festival will feature more than 30 new feature films in its main program, along with a handful of short films. Films come from across the globe, including France, the United Kingdom, Angola and Namibia, Hong Kong, Iran, Colombia, Norway, Qatar, Mexico, Denmark, Germany and Brazil.

Films include Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, a Bruce Springsteen biopic starring Jeremy Allen White.

Ghost Elephants, directed by Werner Herzog, follows a mysterious herd of ghost elephants in the jungles of Angola.

The History of Sound stars Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor and is based on a pair of short stories, “The History of Sound” and “Origin Stories.”

Paul Mescal also stars in Hamnet, written and directed by Chloé Zhao. Based on the book by the same name, it tells the story of Shakespeare and his wife as they grieve the loss of their son.

The 52nd annual Telluride Film Festival officially kicks off on Friday, Aug. 29, and runs through Monday, Sept. 1.

Free films and seminars will take place in Elks Park. A full festival schedule is available at the base of the gondola in Telluride.

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Flash Flood Warnings Issued for Burn Scar Areas in Western Colorado

The National Weather Service has issued a number of flash flood warnings in recent days for areas in western Colorado that have been burned by wildfires.

That includes the Turner Gulch Fire in Mesa County, the Lee Fire in Rio Blanco County, and the Derby Fire in Eagle County.

Erin Walter, a service hydrologist for the National Weather Service’s Grand Junction office, says fires can create conditions that are ideal for debris flows—torrents of rocks, mud, plants and other loose materials.

“One, the canopy. So if a lot of trees have burned, we no longer have vegetation that’s catching rain. It’s immediately going to the ground. And two, the soil moisture composition can change, and if it’s severely burned, it no longer has the ability to absorb some of that rainfall and moisture,” she said.

Walter says because these impacts vary from fire to fire, the Weather Service tends to err on the side of caution when issuing flash flood warnings in burned areas.

She advises anyone recreating near a recently burned area to be very cautious and check weather forecasts before heading out.

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Federal Judge Rules in Favor of Federal Ownership of National Forest Land Near Mancos

Last October, a group of survivors of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints fenced off National Forest land north of Mancos. The group claimed ownership over the land, disputing the federal government’s authority.

KSUT’s Clark Adomaitis reports a federal judge ruled earlier this month that the disputed land remains under federal ownership.

Story begins at 19:10.

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Boulder Considers Sister City Partnership with Ukrainian

Some residents in Boulder, Colorado, are looking to create a new sister city partnership—one that extends far beyond cultural exchange.

The City Council is considering a proposal to create a twin city relationship with a city in southwest Ukraine.

As Rocky Mountain Community Radio’s Maeve Conran reports, the idea began as a collaboration between mental health workers.

Story begins at 20:58.