UEC’s Burke Hollow in situ recovery uranium site in Texas. (Photo: UEC)
Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC) has begun production activities at its Burke Hollow in situ recovery (ISR) mining operation in southern Texas after receiving approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Uranium from the site will be processed at the Hobson Central Processing Plant, which serves as the hub to five satellite ISR projects (referred to as “spokes”) in the Texas Uranium Belt.
Burke Hollow is the first new ISR operation in the United States in more than a decade. Its estimated mineral resources include 6,155,000 pounds of U3O8 in measured and indicated resources, as well as 4,883,000 pounds of U3O8 in inferred resources. Only about one-half of the 20,000-acre site has been explored so far, according to a company announcement.
Texas, Wyoming, Saskatchewan: The Corpus Christi, Texas–based UEC also recently obtained approval to expand capacity at its Christensen Ranch ISR operation in Wyoming. Work there was restarted in 2024 after the company suspended operations in 2018. According to UEC, it is the “only U.S. uranium company with two active producing ISR hub-and-spoke platforms.” UEC is also planning to provide domestic refining and conversion capabilities via its United States Uranium Refining & Conversion Corp. subsidiary; no site has been named for that facility.
UEC’s licensed production capacity in the United States totals approximately 12 million pounds per year at its Wyoming and South Texas ISR operations, the company said. In addition, it controls resource portfolios in Canada’s Athabasca Basin, including the Roughrider uranium project in Saskatchewan.
From discovery to production: UEC president and CEO Amir Adnani said that the “startup of Burke Hollow is a significant achievement for UEC, advancing the project from a grassroots discovery in 2012 to production in 2026. With two ISR operations now producing, and our Ludeman ISR project [in Wyoming] planned for startup in 2027, we are building a scalable, multifaceted platform supported by the largest uranium resource base in the United States.”
Craig Wall, UEC’s vice president for environmental, health, and safety in Texas, praised the TCEQ for approving the Burke Hollow operation. “We appreciate the collaboration and professionalism of the TCEQ throughout the process and look forward to continuing to work with them as the project advances. With Burke Hollow now in production, our South Texas team is focused on safely ramping operations and constructing additional wellfields across the project.”
