page_title: Uranium mining in Arizona
section_title: Monument Valley
hierarchical_section_title: Uranium mining in Arizona / Monument Valley
caption_attribution_description: English: Colorado Plateau Geologic Cross Section
context_page_description: Uranium mining in Arizona has taken place since 1918. Prior to the uranium boom of the late 1940s, uranium in Arizona was a byproduct of vanadium mining of the mineral carnotite.
context_section_description: A Navajo discovered uranium in 1942 in Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation in northeast Arizona.  The first mine in the district opened in 1948.  Uranium and uranium-vanadium minerals occur in fluvial channels of the Shinarump Sandstone member of the Triassic Chinle Formation.  Ore deposits are associated with carbonized wood in the sandstone.  Mining stopped in the Monument Valley district in 1969, after producing 8.7 million pounds (3900 metric tons) of uranium oxide, more than has been produced from any other uranium mining district in Arizona.  In 2005 the Navajo Nation declared a moratorium on uranium mining on the reservation, for environmental and health reasons.
caption: Geologic Cross Section through Monument Valley and White Canyon showing key geologic features.
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