Anfield Energy said Tuesday it has received draft copies of the proposed renewed radioactive materials licence and the proposed groundwater discharge permit for its Shootaring Canyon Mill from the Utah Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Waste Management and Radiation Control. The mill in Garfield County is one of only three licensed, permitted and constructed conventional uranium mills in the United States and is central to Anfield’s hub and spoke strategy across more than 20 uranium assets in the western United States.
The draft licence would authorise possession of natural uranium and 11e.(2) byproduct material at the facility and cap mill production at 1,500 tons, or 3 million pounds, of yellowcake a year. It would also require Anfield to maintain financial surety and a valid groundwater discharge permit at all times, and sets out the groundwater monitoring network, compliance monitoring and reporting requirements, and performance standards for the mill’s process ponds, South Cell and decontamination pad.
Chief executive Corey Dias said receiving both drafts is meaningful progress on the Shootaring reactivation pathway, and that the team continues to remove legacy equipment from the mill under its existing licence to ready it for refurbishment, with the renewed licence targeted for the second quarter of 2027. Anfield said it has submitted all materials requested by the Division and expects the documents to be ready for public notice and comment around the end of 2026, with a 45 day public comment period beginning in late 2026 or early 2027.
The nearest feed source is the Velvet Wood uranium and vanadium project in San Juan County, about 200 miles south of Salt Lake City, which the United States government selected for fast tracked permitting. Velvet Wood holds 4.6 million pounds of uranium oxide equivalent in the measured and indicated category plus 552,000 pounds inferred, across two areas. The sequencing matters more than any single permit: a mill licence without permitted feed is stranded capacity, so Velvet Wood’s fast track and the Shootaring drafts advancing together is what makes the 2027 target credible enough to test.