How Russia Controlled A Huge Chunk Of Wyoming Uranium, And How Wyoming Got It Back

For nearly a decade, 100,000 acres of Wyoming’s uranium fields in the Powder River Basin—including 4.1 million pounds of U.S.-warehoused uranium—belonged to a Russian company called Uranium One, controlled by Russia’s state-owned Atomredmetzoloto, the mining arm of the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom. The chapter raised few eyebrows in Wyoming at the time but looks very different now that uranium is listed as a critical mineral and the United States is racing to rebuild its nuclear fuel supply chain.

“Companies choose where they want to go,” said Wyoming Mining Association Executive Director Travis Deti. “And if they meet their permitting obligations and all that stuff, we do allow foreign companies to operate in the United States.” Deti doesn’t recall much talk about the Russian ownership in Wyoming at the time. “There was no legislation or anything,” he said. “I have been asked in committee about Russians in Wyoming, and my answer to that is, ‘Well, they’re not here anymore.'”

Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC) CEO Amir Adnani mentioned the Russian connection during a recent energy summit in Laramie. Adnani’s company bought out the Russian assets in 2021, making them American again. “No one knows how they got permits, when they did, or the approvals to be able to own and operate uranium mines in the U.S.,” Adnani said. “Like, if the shoe was on the other foot, we’d never be allowed to mine uranium in Russia or China or anything like that.”

The deal required American government approval through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a body that includes America’s most powerful cabinet members. Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso led efforts to block the deal, writing to President Barack Obama that it “would give the Russian government control over a sizable portion of America’s uranium production capacity.” The Nuclear Regulatory Agency responded that the uranium mine’s production would be reserved for domestic use no matter who owned it.

CFIUS ultimately approved the transaction in spite of the controversy. Because CFIUS deliberations are classified, the nature of the discussion remains secret. At the time, there was increasing optimism about U.S.-Russia relations, with the Obama administration eager for cooperation on nuclear nonproliferation, Afghanistan troop supply routes, and preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Many of those hopes have not panned out.

After acquiring Uranium One’s assets, UEC also acquired Rio Tinto’s assets in the Great Divide Basin. Adnani said his company is now studying locations for a nuclear conversion facility in either Wyoming or Texas. “It seemed odd to us that we would be mining uranium here in Wyoming, dry packaging it, and then shipping it across state borders,” he said. “It seems kind of crazy not to capture that downstream economic value in the fuel cycle, which begins with the product we mine.”

Deti acknowledged that a deal like the Russian ownership would not likely pass muster today. Uranium has since been formally recognized by the U.S. government as a critical mineral, and the broader fuel cycle has been reframed as a national security asset. Unanswered questions about how Russia came to own a good chunk of Wyoming’s uranium may linger, but what is more pressing to many in the energy sector is who will control the nuclear fuel cycle going forward—and how best to keep the supply chain firmly domestic.