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Wyoming Labor Force Trends

September 2024 | Volume 61, No. 9


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Uranium Mining Employment Increases in Wyoming

Article | Tables and Figures


by: David Bullard, Senior Economist


Uranium mining in Wyoming has been a topic in the news over the last several months. This article presents historical employment data on uranium mining in Wyoming, and how market prices have affected employment. In addition, this article also compares uranium mining trends over time to Wyoming’s overall natural resources & mining sector.


Uranium mining is currently a relatively small industry in Wyoming. In March 2024, the latest month for which data are available, it employed 235 people. In contrast, in 2023 there were more than 8,900 jobs in oil & gas, approximately 4,600 jobs in coal mining, and approximately 1,700 jobs in trona mining. This article reviews historical employment in uranium mining in the state and compares job levels to uranium prices. It also contrasts the cyclical pattern in overall natural resources & mining employment to uranium employment. Finally, it reviews spot prices to provide possible insight into future employment levels.

Figure 1 shows uranium mining employment in Wyoming from January 2000 to March 2024. The data in Figure 1 represent the sum of two detailed industries as identified by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS): other metal ore mining (NAICS 212290) and support activities for metal mining (NAICS 213114). Thus, the data include both uranium producers (the companies that produce and sell uranium) and service companies (those that provide related support services). Some examples of support activities are blasting services, boring test holes, drilling services, and exploration services.

Including both of these NAICS codes helps capture the whole range of uranium-related employment. Different revisions of NAICS over the years have affected the data, and Figure 1 was created by splicing together two series (NAICS 212291 from 2000 to 2021) and (NAICS 212290 from 2022 to 2024) and adding NAICS 213114 (support activities for metal mining).

There have been wide swings in uranium mining employment in Wyoming over the past two decades. Employment reached a high point of 494 in June 2013, and then fell to a low of 139 in October 2021. During the past few years, employment has been generally increasing and reached 235 in March 2024, an increase of nearly 100 jobs from the low point.

Recent news reports have stated that the Willow Creek mine in Johnson County reopened in August (Hargrave, 2024, and Sonntag, 2024). This suggests that uranium mining employment in Wyoming probably will continue to grow in third quarter 2024.

In Wyoming, uranium is mined using an in situ recovery (ISR) process (Wyoming State Geological Survey, n.d.). This means that “oxygenated water is injected into underground wells of ore body, where it dissolves uranium into solution before pumping it back to surface for further processing” (Sonntag, 2024). One advantage of this mining method is that compared to conventional mining, there is “very little surface disturbance” (Wyoming State Geological Survey, n.d.).

Uranium employment has usually moved with uranium prices. Employment roughly doubled from around 200 jobs in 2002, when the average price was $10.36, to more than 400 jobs in 2011, when prices peaked at $55.64. Then, as prices fell to $33.27 in 2020, employment decreased back down under 200. More recently, prices have been climbing, rising to an average of $39.08 in 2022 and $43.80 in 2023, and employment has increased as well.

The ups and downs of total natural resources & mining employment are contrasted with uranium mining employment in Figure 2. While uranium has basically been through one large up and down cycle with a single peak in 2013, total natural resources & mining had multiple peaks in 2001, 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2019. Natural resources & mining has experienced low points, or troughs, in 2002, 2009, 2016, and 2020. Additionally, the global peak of natural resources & mining of 2008 was much earlier than the peak of uranium employment in 2013. Focusing on the most recent data shown in Figure 2 suggests that uranium mining employment is steadily rising while overall natural resources & mining employment may be falling slightly. However, because the total natural resources & mining employment data will likely be revised, it is probably too early to form any conclusions.

Why do the differing employment patterns matter? The fact that the two series follow different boom/bust cycles suggests that uranium mining employment helps provide diversification for Wyoming’s economy. In other words, because it follows a different cycle, uranium employment could help temper the state’s overall expansions and contractions and thereby foster economic stability.

What might the future hold for uranium employment in Wyoming? Figure 3 shows uranium spot prices from January 2020 to July 2024. There is a clear upward trend in prices over this period, and the price at the end of the series ($84.25) is much higher than prices that prevailed from early 2020 to mid-2023. Based on the relationship shown in Figure 1, all else equal, higher prices suggest that uranium employment in Wyoming will likely continue to rise, at least in the short-term.

In summary, uranium employment in Wyoming is a relatively small industry, but it has been growing recently, and spot prices and news reports suggest that employment levels will likely continue to rise.

References

Hargrave, A. (2024, August) Production begins at local uranium mine. Buffalo Bulletin. Retrieved August 19, 2024, from https://www.buffalobulletin.com/article_f9ca5220-5a50-11ef-be8d-6b6fd194c915.html

Sonntag, Z. (2024 August) Historic uranium site brought back to life. Casper Star-Tribune. Retrieved August 19, 2024, from https://trib.com/news/state-regional/business/uranium-production-in-wyoming-nuclear-fuel-nuclear-energy-wyoming/article_8fb6ee8e-5a64-11ef-97e3-8b91aed45db0.html

Wyoming State Geological Survey. (n.d.). Uranium mining. Retrieved August 20, 2024, from https://main.wsgs.wyo.gov/energy/uranium/uranium-mining