Wyoming has officially surpassed Texas in uranium production, marking a dramatic turnaround for an industry that has languished for decades under depressed prices and foreign competition.
The state produced 92,595 pounds of uranium concentrate in the first quarter of 2025, representing an impressive increase year-over-year and pushing Wyoming past Texas's 69,082 pounds, according to federal data. Utah remains the nation's largest uranium producer at 148,856 pounds.
Wyoming's current production levels are just the beginning of what promises to be an explosive growth period, said Wayne Heili, a Casper-based uranium industry veteran.
"Those quarterly results really are nothing like the full potential," Heili told Cowboy State Daily, listing the state's active mines currently increasing production.
"You're talking about like 1 million pounds a quarter, not 90,000 pounds a quarter," said Heili.
The dramatic production increase comes after years of industry stagnation that Heili knows intimately.
"The uranium markets have been abysmal for the vast majority of my career," he said. "It's amazing to me I stuck out to a career in uranium."
According to the August 2025 CREW Report from the University of Wyoming's Center for Energy Regulation and Policy Analysis, the spot price for uranium continues to move upwards, approaching $80 despite still being down 6.8% compared to last year.
The June 2024 price was $84.25 per pound, and a year later in June 2025 the price dipped to $78.50 per pound — sitting at a level that's still appealing to investors, according to Heili.
Boom Times
Several factors have converged to create what industry insiders see as a perfect storm for domestic uranium production.
Federal policies prohibiting Russian uranium imports, growing demand from data centers and expanding populations, plus renewed government support for nuclear energy as a power source have all contributed to the resurgence.
"The United States is the world's largest nuclear nation. And in the commercial production of electricity, we have close to 100 reactors producing energy across the nation, about 20% of our electricity," said Heili, pointing out that the U.S. annually consumes about 50 million pounds of uranium, but is only
producing about 1 million pounds a year.
"I think Wyoming has 14 to 15 million pounds a year of licensed capacity," said Heili, adding, "We've had production facilities that are fully licensed sit idle. So those production facilities are now ramping up based on stronger long-term contracting markets in the uranium space."
The CREW Report corroborates the dramatic production surge, noting that Wyoming uranium production saw a 98.9% increase between the first quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.
Wyoming currently has three active uranium mines ramping up production, with a fourth project in the Shirley Basin expected to come online before year's end.
The state's uranium production infrastructure includes facilities operated by Ur-Energy, Strata Energy, Uranium Energy Corp. and other companies working to meet swelling demand.
View From Utah
From Utah's perspective as the current production leader, Brian Somers, president of the Utah Mining Association, sees the regional growth as beneficial for the entire industry.
"I think all the Western states are very supportive of one another and, you know, trying to, trying to grow our, our mining industries and energy industries," Somers said during an interview from Ontario, where he was following up on a trade mission trip by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.
Utah's advantage lies partly in its processing infrastructure, said Somers. The state hosts the White Mesa mill in Blanding, which Somers describes as "the last working conventional uranium mill in the U.S.”
"It's obviously a critical facility in moving this whole conversation forward," Somers explained. "It's a great facility. It's been producing uranium for I think 45 years at this point."
The mill provides processing capacity for uranium ore from across the Western states.
"Send us all that Wyoming uranium," Somers said.
Path To No. 1
Looking ahead, Matt Fry, director of the Center for Energy Regulation and Policy Analysis, told Cowboy State Daily, he believes Wyoming is positioned to claim the top spot in national uranium production.
The state's combination of substantial uranium reserves, existing licensed facilities, and favorable geology for in-situ mining creates significant competitive advantages.
"We as a state have the ability to outcompete all the nearby states, Utah and Texas, just based on our production capacity and capability," Fry said. "And we're expanding. So we will once again be No. 1."
Fry's analysis suggests that Utah's recent dominance may be temporary, stemming from unique circumstances rather than sustained production capacity.
He explained that Utah's surge in late 2024 and early 2025 resulted from resolving a longstanding transportation bottleneck.
"There was kind of an anomaly in Utah," Fry explained. "They've got a conventional mine down in southern Utah, and they had to negotiate with the Navajo Nation to transport that uranium ore across the Navajo Nation. So they just had a tremendous stockpile.”
Once Utah reached an agreement with the Navajo Nation, “They just had this essential flood gate open at the end of 2024. So it's a bit of an anomaly."
Sean Schaub, nuclear industry coordinator at the Wyoming Energy Authority, emphasized that Wyoming's future success depends on continued exploration and awareness of global market dynamics.
He noted that the state's uranium industry has deep historical roots and significant infrastructure already in place.
"We've been doing this an awfully long time in Wyoming, and we've got a number of projects and properties that are permitted and sort of ready to go," Schaub said. "When you turn these things back on, it's not like you reach production capacity right away. These continue to ramp up.”
Schaub points to the interconnected nature of the global uranium market as both an opportunity and a factor requiring constant attention. He highlighted recent developments in Kazakhstan, the world's leading uranium producer, as an example of how international events can impact Wyoming's industry.
"Kazakhstan has basically announced plans for, it says, roughly a 10% cut in its uranium production in 2026," Schaub said, referencing an article from World Nuclear News. "Kazakhstan is the world's leading producer of uranium. So anytime something like this happens, it has a ripple effect."
He believes such international developments could continue to support higher uranium prices, creating favorable conditions for Wyoming producers.
However, Schaub noted that sustained success requires ongoing investment in exploration activities.
"It takes a long time to get a new production going, and so it's really important to always be doing exploration activities. To be able to kind of continue to fill in the pipeline, as it were," he said. "That's another positive development right now there's a lot of exploration drilling going on, which is just a good sign for the health of the industry right now."
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
