On August 19, 2026, Ur-Energy completed its first uranium shipment from the Shirley Basin mine in Wyoming to the Lost Creek processing facility. The milestone marks the start of full-scale operations at the company’s second ISR extraction site, making Ur-Energy an active multi-site U.S. domestic uranium producer.
The Shirley Basin mine uses in-situ recovery (ISR) technology and holds a licensed capacity of 2.0 million pounds of U₃O₈ equivalent, covering both wellfield extraction and toll processing. The site operates as a satellite to the Lost Creek hub, which remains the company’s operational backbone: resin loaded with uranium is transported from Shirley Basin to the main facility for final processing and delivery. Lost Creek is the largest active ISR uranium mine in the United States and has already processed and delivered more than 3.5 million pounds of U₃O₈ to a conversion facility. Together, the two operations bring the combined annual licensed production capacity to 4.2 million pounds of U₃O₈.
Initial operations at Shirley Basin began in April 2026, with the commissioning of the first header house and the start of uranium-bearing solution flowing into resin capture. The final authorization from the State of Wyoming — issued by the Department of Environmental Quality in late June 2026 — cleared the path for resin transport to Lost Creek and commercial shipments. From the construction decision to the first shipment, only two and a half years elapsed — a remarkably short timeline for a mining project of this scale.
Ur-Energy President and CEO Matt Gili described the achievement as tangible proof of the company’s hub-and-spoke model: a central hub that consolidates and processes output from multiple satellite sites, keeping development costs low and minimizing the time between permitting and production. The model is designed to be replicated at other nearby prospects, including Lost Soldier, where baseline environmental studies are already underway ahead of a potential permit application as a Lost Creek satellite mine.
First-quarter 2026 data already pointed to a solid operational footing: Ur-Energy sold 55,000 pounds of U₃O₈ at an average price of approximately $71 per pound, with a 31.2% margin on domestically produced material. With Shirley Basin now ramping up, the company’s domestic production growth trajectory is strengthening at a time when demand for low-carbon uranium is firmly back on the U.S. energy agenda. The next steps will focus on full wellfield optimization and a gradual increase in volumes shipped to Lost Creek.
