The U.S. Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council has designated Uranium Energy Corp’s Sweetwater Uranium Complex in Wyoming as a transparency project under the FAST-41 program, adding it to the federal fast-track permitting dashboard. The designation follows President Trump’s March 20, 2025 Executive Order on Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production, which directed federal agencies to accelerate permitting for selected critical mineral projects. UEC’s permitting objective is to add In-Situ Recovery mining within the existing mine permit boundary at Sweetwater and to expand that boundary to include adjacent ISR-amenable deposits on Bureau of Land Management lands. The BLM, under the Department of the Interior, is the lead federal permitting agency for the project.
What it means
Sweetwater, which UEC acquired from Rio Tinto in 2024, is anchored by a conventional uranium mill — the Sweetwater Processing Plant — that is fully licensed and permitted by the State of Wyoming and carries a licensed capacity of 3,000 tons per day and 4.1 million pounds of U₃O₈ per year. UEC said that on completing the permitting initiative, Sweetwater will become the largest dual-feed uranium facility in the United States, licensed to process both conventional ore and ISR resin. The complex will serve as UEC’s third hub-and-spoke production platform, alongside existing platforms in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin and South Texas. UEC said its three platforms would carry a combined licensed production capacity of 12.1 million pounds U₃O₈ per year.
Previously permitted mines at the complex include the Sweetwater (Red Desert), Big Eagle, and Jackpot (Green Mountain) uranium mines, all approved for conventional mining methods. The site holds over 175 million pounds of historic uranium resources supported by more than 6.1 million feet of historic drilling and internal studies dating from 1984 to 2019. UEC’s ISR operations at its Christensen Ranch project in Wyoming began in August 2024, sending uranium-loaded resin to the Irigaray central processing plant.
Key facts
- Designating body: Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, under President Trump’s March 20, 2025 Executive Order on Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production
- Project added to FAST-41 transparency dashboard; BLM is lead federal permitting agency
- Sweetwater Processing Plant licensed capacity: 3,000 tons per day; 4.1 million pounds U₃O₈ per year (existing conventional mill)
- Combined licensed production capacity across UEC’s three hub-and-spoke platforms: 12.1 million pounds U₃O₈ per year (according to the company)
- Historic uranium resources at Sweetwater: over 175 million pounds, based on studies from 1984 to 2019 (according to the company)
- Historic drilling at Sweetwater: over 6.1 million feet (according to the company)
- UEC total basin portfolio acreage: approximately 108,000 acres (according to the company)
- Sweetwater acquired from Rio Tinto in 2024; ISR operations at Christensen Ranch began August 2024
Source: Uranium Energy Corp news release (PR Newswire)