Uranium in Mississippi County, Missouri?

It’s here, according to a retired geologist who met Monday with a group of around 25 farmers at the East Prairie Nutrition Center. And he needs the farmers’ help in finding it.

John Gustavson has a long, successful, record of work in engineering and geology and was mentioned in a Wall Street Journal article just last Thursday as the individual who found large natural gas resources in Hungary, now under development by ExxonMobil. He said Monday he started his career "as a rocket scientist" with NASA in the 1960s, formed his own geology/engineering company in the ‘70s, and spent several years in that time frame working in Missouri. He said he wants to spend the next year working as Mississippi County farmers’ exploratory arm. Nuclear power will be extremely necessary in the future as the United States develops more "clean" energy resources, Gustavson said. Nuclear power provides "good cheap electricity", which will become ever more important. He said he has worked in this region, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee for 35 years and is convinced uranium is here. He explained some of the geologic forces at work over millions of years, with volcanoes in the region before the Mississippi Embayment was gradually formed after the water from the Gulf of Mexico covered the land. Ash from the volcanoes fell over a large area and sediment then covered the ash, that contained the uranium.

Gustavson worked in this region with the Department of Energy in the 1970s covering an area from here to Kentucky Lake, west to Poplar Bluff, into Arkansas and Tennessee. During this time, he said, he found many indicators of uranium to be found in Porter Creek clay deposits formed from the volcanic ash. He said during his research, it was between 1978 and 1982 that he became convinced that uranium deposits are here. He said the deposits are from 100 to 300 feet deep, in clay between two aquifers. The geologic realities here are similar to what is found in South Texas, where uranium is mined. He said he has determined that Mississippi County is one of the best places to look for the uranium deposits in this region. He said he is looking at a two-step process and this is the beginning of the first of those steps. He needs one-year agreements with farmers during which he will study all data, specifically "under your farms in the entire county", as well as other counties along the river in Kentucky.

"Mississippi County is the most favorable place" to find the uranium deposits, he said. When he retired last August and his wife got tired of him rearranging cans in alphabetical order in her kitchen pantry, he decided to look back to a report he wrote in 1982 for the Department of Energy. Scientists said this could be the largest undiscovered uranium deposit in the United States. He wants to look for one year, will send reports each month to farmers who sign up, and in the meantime he will go back and test water wells as well as drill some new water wells in the county, testing for uranium. There have been incidents locally where minute, not dangerous, amounts of uranium have been detected in ground water. Uranium found in this type of sedimentary soils is not mined by strip mining, but in place, using water in a closed system. The only space used at first is for the well itself, farming can continue. When uranium is found, another company will be brought in to mine the "ore". At that point, the company may purchase small amounts of land, say 100 yards by 100 yards, where 16 wells might be drilled. The remainder of the land can still be farmed. The water pumped down to the ore dissolves the uranium salts and that water is then brought back up and is transported to a central plant where the uranium is filtered out to make "yellowcake", which sells for $60 to $65 a pound.

"The world needs more and more uranium," Gustavson said, "as more and more countries are building new nuclear plants, including the United States, France, China, and Japan. During this first step, Gustavson said, they will be spending their money and will study all old data again as well as drill new wells. If an individual farmer is in the right area, they will dig deeper and pay rental at $5 per acre per year. for the easement. At some point, he added, they expect to find a number of deposits of uranium in the Porters Creek clay between the McNeary Sands and Wilcox Aquifer. He wants farmers to sign agreements, giving his company access to drill wells with the option for mineral leases. If it is found, he said farmers could realize from $200,000 to $300,000 a year in royalties over the 15- to 25-year term of the lease. Michael Faas, land and legal departments of Gustavson’s company, Water Research & Development Company, asked farmers present to highlight on a plat map where their properties are. While no one signed any agreements Monday night, several turned in highlighted plat maps showing the locations of their properties.