Ambrosia Lake
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 Ambrosia Lake mill and tailings pile after remediation. |
Ambrosia Lake is a uranium mining district in McKinley and Cibola counties in New Mexico north of Grants that was heavily mined for uranium starting in the 1950s. It is in an anticlinal dome.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
Contents
History
Kerr-McGee first learned about rich uranium deposits in the area in 1955. It ran a free assay service and some prospectors had sent in samples that the company found to be high in uranium. Kerr-McGee sent an agent to buy the property. This agent instead double crossed the company and bought the site for himself. Various parties (including United Western Minerals Corporation of General Patrick Jay Hurley) rushed into the area to get sections of property. However Kerr-McGee wound up owning most of Ambrosia Lake.[8]
Kerr-McGee then allied with Anderson Development Corp., and Pacific Uranium Mines to form the Kermac Nuclear Fuels Corporation. They built a mill there.[1][4][5] When Kerr-McGee Nuclear split into Quivira Mining and Sequoyah Fuels subsidiaries in 1983, Quivira got the Ambrosia Lake property. When Quivira was sold to Rio Algom in 1989, Rio got the mine and mill. Rio was later bought by Billiton which later became BHP Billiton.[1][2][3][6][7]
Cleanup
By 1982, approximately Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1851: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). of radioactive tailings were left from almost 25 years of uranium extraction. Wind and rain spread the material over an area of Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1851: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value).. Between 1987 and 1995, the Department of Energy remediated the site, encasing Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1851: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). of contaminated material in a 91 acres (0.37 km2) disposal cell.[9]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Masters, Secret Riches, Chapter 6 - Ambrosia Lake
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Minerals of Ambrosia Lake area. |
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