Wyoming’s newest uranium mine has begun operations. Production started Monday at the Cameco Resources North Butte Mine in southwestern Campbell County, west of Wright.

Cameco Resources is the American arm of a Canadian company whose holding include the Crow Butte uranium mine near Crawford, which has been in commercial production for two decades using the same in-situ method as the North Butte Mine.

North Butte is a satellite facility to the company’s Smith Ranch-Highland mine in Converse County, Wyoming. Uranium-bearing resin from North Butte will be transported to an existing central processing plant at Smith Ranch-Highland for production of uranium concentrate.

Cameco expects North Butte to produce 300,000 pounds of uranium ore this year and to reach 700,000 pounds in 2015. The mine will pay about $2-million dollars in taxes to state and local governments while employing 54 full-time employees and contractors.

North Butte is part of an aggressive Cameco expansion program. The company plans to open five more uranium mines in Wyoming and Nebraska over the next few years despite a soft uranium market with prices down 40% from 2 years ago.

Wyoming produces more uranium than any other state…about 1.6 million pounds a year or nearly one-third of all U-S production.