The Office of Legacy Management (LM) currently administers the Department of Energy's (DOE) Uranium Leasing Program on 25,000 acres, all located within the Uravan Mineral Belt in southwestern Colorado. Following analysis of the lease tract boundaries, the original 38 lease tracts were revised to 32 lease tracts for land management and economic efficiency reasons.

Thirteen of these lease tracts were awarded effective April 30, 2008, and 18 additional lease tracts were awarded effective June 27, 2008, all with lease terms of 10 years. Over 100 interested parties were on the potential bidder's list when the solicitation began, and the 31 leases are now held by a total of six companies. DOE withheld one lease after determining that it was not viable.

All of the lease tracts have been successfully awarded, and the leases are now in an evaluation and planning phase. During the last quarter of fiscal year 2008, the lessees are developing exploration plans, working with the state of Colorado on exploration and mine permits, and performing other due diligence activities. Base royalties were received from all of the lessees totaling just under $500,000 annually and these revenues have been appropriately sent to the Department of Energy Administrative Treasury account. The production royalties that are expected when mining actually begins will be based on bids that range from 7.67 percent to 36.2 percent. With these results the program will continue in good standing. This concludes the first bid opening of this kind in 34 years and all of the successful lessees and uranium program leasing information is being updated and posted on the LM website.

Built into the DOE lease contracts are performance bonds that are put in place prior to the beginning of any exploration activities or mining operations and cover all reclamations activities to close and reclaim the lease tracts at the termination of the leases. These 32 lease contracts provide a base annual royalty whether mining actually occurs, which will return $500,000 per year if all 32 lease tracts are leased. In addition, lessees will pay a production royalty on the uranium and vanadium produced on the dry tons of ore received at the mill or receiving site. The lease language for the leases all contain general and specific stipulations resulting from the Programmatic Environmental Assessment that
DOE completed with its finding of no significant impact document in July 2007. In addition, ongoing discussions with the Bureau of Land Management and state agencies for transportation, reclamation and mine safety, and wildlife ensure that exploration and mining plans are reviewed and appropriate mitigation is in place prior to the initiation of lease-related activities. DOE estimates that the total surface disturbance for the active mines will be about 750 acres on the 25,000 acres withdrawn from the public domain and under the control of DOE for uranium mining purposes.