High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Uranium mining in the United States is the extraction of uranium-bearing ore from the earth, or In-situ leach recovery involving the extraction of uranium-bearing liquids. While uranium is used primarily for nuclear power, uranium mining had its roots in the production of uranium-bearing ore in 1898 with the mining of carnotite-bearing sandstones of the Colorado Plateau in Colorado and Utah, for their vanadium content. The late 1940s and early 1950s saw a boom in uranium mining in the western U.S., spurred by the fortunes made by prospectors such as Charlie Steen. The United States was the world`s leading producer of uranium from 1953 until 1980, when annual U.S. production peaked at 16,810 metric tons U3O8. Until the early 1980s, there were active uranium mines in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.