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1.0 INTRODUCTION <br />Energy Fuels Resources Corporation (Energy Fuels) proposes to reopen two adjacent <br />underground uranium/vanadium mines as a combined operation called the Whirlwind <br />Mine. The Whirlwind Mine is located approximately 5 miles southwest of Gateway, <br />Colorado in Mesa County (see Figure 1). The Whirlwind property (see Figure 2), which <br />straddles the Colorado/Utah state line, consists of 206 unpatented claims and a State of <br />Utah mineral lease in the Beaver Mesa Mining District of the Uravan Mineral Belt. In <br />Mesa County, Colorado, the claims lie in: Section 31, T51N, R19W; Section 6, T50N, <br />R19W; Sections 25, 26, 35, and 36 of T51N, R20W; and Sections 1, 2, 11 and 12 of <br />T50N, R20W, New Mexico Principal Meridian (NMPM). In Grand County, Utah, the <br />claims lie in: Sections 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 of T25S, R26E, Salt Lake <br />Based Meridian (SLBM). The claim block encompasses approximately 5,000 acres. The <br />unpatented claims are on public land administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land <br />Management (BLM). The mineral rights are controlled by Energy Fuels through long- <br />term lease agreements with the claim owners and a State of Utah mineral lease for the 320 <br />acres in Section 16. <br />The proposed surface disturbance associated with the Whirlwind Mine is concentrated on <br />the Colorado side of the state line with only vent shafts and associated access roads <br />located in Utah. The mine is permitted with Mesa County, Colorado under a Conditional <br />Use Permit and with the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (DRMS) <br />under a 112d Permit (i.e., large designated mining operation). The vent shafts on the Utah <br />side of the state line are permitted with the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining under a <br />Small Mine Permit (i.e., less than five acres of surface disturbance). The Whirlwind Mine <br />and its revised Plan of Operations dated March 2008 were approved by the Grand <br />Junction and Moab Field Offices of the BLM in a September 2008 Decision Notice and <br />Environmental Assessment. <br />Title 40, Part 61, Subpart B of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) requires that <br />underground uranium mines limit radon-222 emissions to any member of the public to an <br />effective dose of 10 millirem per year (mrem/yr) or less. The regulation applies only to <br />uranium mines that will or are designed to produce over 100,000 tons of ore during the <br />life of the mine or had or will have an annual ore production greater than 10,000 tons. In <br />Colorado, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for regulating <br />Subpart B emissions. In Utah, the Utah Division of Air Quality is responsible for <br />regulating Subpart B emissions as their state program has obtained primacy from the <br />1