This story has been updated since its original publication on May 16, 2025, to reflect new information.

B.C.-headquartered Anfield Energy announced on May 27 the approval of its Velvet-Wood uranium and vanadium project in southeastern Utah. The environmental review for the project was completed by the federal Bureau of Land Management within 14 days.  

The U.S. Department of the Interior first shared on May 12 that it planned to expedite the environmental permitting process for the project, supporting U.S. President Donald Trump’s push to increase domestic energy production. The company had submitted the plan of operation to be approved in May 2024.  

The project is the first uranium project to be expedited by the U.S. government under Trump’s newly established emergency permitting procedures, announced in April, to speed up the environmental review process for domestic energy projects.  

“We are very pleased that the Department of the Interior has greenlit our Velvet-Wood project in an expedited manner,” said Corey Dias, chief executive officer of Anfield Energy, in the May 27 press release. “This confirms our view that Velvet-Wood was well-suited for an accelerated review, given that it is a past-producing uranium and vanadium mine with a small environmental footprint. The company will now pivot to advancing the project through construction and, ultimately, to production.” 

Anfield Energy also owns the shuttered Shootaring Canyon uranium mill in Utah, located around 180 miles from the Velvet-Wood mine area, which the company plans to restart to convert uranium ore from the Velvet-Wood project into uranium concentrate. The mill was built in 1980, operated briefly in 1982, and has been under care and maintenance since then. According to the company, the mill is one of only three licensed, permitted and constructed conventional uranium mills in the United States. 

The Velvet-Wood project was acquired by Anfield Energy from Uranium One in 2015. Prior to that, Atlas Minerals—its previous owner—mined approximately 400,000 short tons of ore from the Velvet deposit, with grades of 0.46 per cent uranium oxide and 0.64 per cent vanadium pentoxide, recovering about four million pounds of uranium oxide and five million pounds of vanadium pentoxide between 1979 and 1984. 

A 2023 preliminary economic assessment from Anfield Energy estimated mine-related capital expenditures for the Velvet-Wood project at US$15.3 million.