All through the uranium country in the Western states, ore has piled high outside the mines as production outsped the expansion of uranium refineries. One of the biggest stacks of ore lies outside the rich ($60 million in proved reserves) Mi Vida mine of Charles Steen, the onetime oil geologist who discovered Mi Vida when he was almost penniless, thereby touched off southeast Utah's first big uranium strike (TIME, Aug. 3, 1953).
Ore has been collecting at Mi Vida's portal at the rate of 15,000 to 20,000 tons monthly, now lies in heaps 40 ft. high. The sight of such idle...
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