Montana seals 20 hazards at five abandoned uranium sites that once supplied US defence program

BCI surveys an abandoned uranium mine for bat habitat. Photo: Bat Conservation International. Several abandoned uranium mine sites in the Pryor Mountains of south-central Montana have been closed after federal agencies identified safety, radiation and environmental risks. The work was carried out on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), with the Department of Energy’s Defense Related Uranium Mine (DRUM) programme and other partners involved.The project focused on five historic mine sites where workers addressed dangerous openings and other hazards, according to the information available on BLM's website. In September 2025, contractors completed work to close 20 mine features by backfilling mine openings, installing bat-friendly closure gates, fencing dangerous highwalls, plugging drill holes and removing solid waste.The need for the work was linked to the condition of the abandoned mines. The BLM said entering abandoned mine sites on public lands can be dangerous and, in some cases, fatal. The structures can become unstable over time because they are no longer maintained, increasing the risk of collapse and injury to visitors.Some of the uranium mines in the Pryor M...