Uranium Mining
During the 1950s, Silver Reef also experienced a brief uranium rush. After the end of World War 2 and at the beginning of the Cold War, uranium and similar minerals quickly became in high demand. Since a lot of uranium was being found all over Utah, interest again focused on the mines of Silver Reef. Since these mining efforts took place in the 1950s, many of their remains are still visible today.
In addition to the interest in uranium, new milling technologies were available to extract silver from rock. Across the American West, many companies began “reworking” old mine tailings and waste piles. Located all around Silver Reef’s mines from the 1880s, there were plenty of waste piles to rework and hopefully extract more silver with relative ease because it was just laying there – it just had to be milled.
In 1948, a company called Western Gold & Uranium, Inc. acquired all of Silver Reef’s old mining properties that were earlier consolidated into one property. They begin reworking the tailings and waste piles. Although they were profitable in doing so, the company had more profitable operations elsewhere and concentrated on them.
When the uranium boom of the 1950s began, Western Gold & Uranium began assaying all the mines it owned around Silver Reef for uranium. Vanadium, another sought-after mineral during the atomic age, was also found. They located two silver-uranium ore bodies within the Leeds Reef, an area where silver was not previously mined.
In 1955, Western Gold & Uranium built a mine on what was to be called Paulmar Hill (also called Big Hill) on the Leeds Reef. It’s called the Anne’s Pride Mine. This is the mine and headframe seen today on the left side of main road when heading up to Silver Reef. The vertical shaft goes down 140 feet. Several thousand tons of silver and uranium ore were brought up from the underground workings. Another vertical shaft and small headframe is also visible close by along the paved road.
The two headframes located on Paulmar Hill are the only remaining headframes in the entire Silver Reef mining area. In the 1880s, many headframes like this, all constructed of wood, were located all over. There was also a very large steel headframe located on the White Reef that was built in the late 1920s, then fell down in 1948 .
In 1956, Western Gold & Uranium built a flotation mill just across the draw from the Barbee & Walker site. It processed ore from both the Anne’s Pride mine and from the tailings laying around Silver Reef. The mill produced silver-copper concentrates, along with uranium-vanadium-copper concentrates. These concentrates were then shipped to another mill near Salt Lake City, where the next refining step took place to extract the pure metals (the silver and uranium).
The mill is still standing and can be closely examined on the walking tour. It’s the only example of an actual mill still existing near Silver Reef as of 2026. Just like the historic silver mills, this mill was also built on a slope. The ore bin can still be examined where truckloads of ore were dumped to begin the milling process. The next phase down was some type of rock crusher, then it went further down into the mill to complete the process. The concentrates came out at the bottom of the mill.
Related Information
- The Mines of Silver Reef – Covers more detail on other mines nearby
- Silver Mining – Explains how ore (silver & uranium) was mined in Silver Reef