VALAR WATCH
Key findingsTheir claims, annotatedEvidenceTake action
374 facts · 512 sources · updated 2026-09-30

Mining Claims

Claims tied to the company or its sites, lode claims in Emery and Carbon counties, new lode claims in Utah, and the law on what claims may be used for.

newfield noteconfirmed Mining-claim markers in Carbon County carry a posted notice naming Valar's RW 453 claim
2026-09 · fld-001 · Carbon County

Mining-claim markers stand in Carbon County. The Notice of Location posted at one of them (fld-002) names Valar Atomics Inc as locator of the RW 453 lode claim in Section 28, Township 14 South, Range 11 East, about 3.4 miles northeast of central Wellington, measured to the section's centre (BLM survey grid, dir-002).

In plain termsMining claims are staked on the ground with posts or monuments. Under Utah law each claim's location notice, naming who staked it and when, has to be posted at the claim and recorded with the county. The notice on the marker is the quickest way to learn who is behind it.
verified 2026-09-29: Field report; the posted notice is fld-002. Synthesis check 2026-09-29: the distance to Wellington was given as 'about 2.5 miles', citing dir-002, which gives about 3.4 miles from central Wellington to the centre of Section 28 (recomputed from BLM's section corners; the nearest corner of the section is closer); corrected to match dir-002.
newrecordconfirmed Where RW 453 was staked, most land is private: federal land is about 37% of Section 28's north half
2026-09-29 · dir-002 · Valar Atomics, Bureau of Land Management, Carbon County Assessor

BLM's survey grid places Section 28, T14S R11E SLM at 39.572-39.586 N, 110.683-110.702 W, directly two miles south of Section 16 (the land the state approved leasing to Valar) and about 3.4 miles northeast of central Wellington. Carbon County's parcel records (compiled statewide by UGRC; parcel shapes current as of 26 November 2025, ownership layer of 18 June 2026) show one federal parcel, 2A-1292-028F (200 acres, recorded as held by the 'United States of America'), in four pieces: about 80 acres in the NE quarter and about 40 acres in each other quarter. Everything else is private. Laying the parcel shapes over the section on a fine grid, the north half (the NW and NE quarters, 320 acres, where the notice places RW 453) is about 119 acres federal (37%), about 100 acres in 17 parcels the county assessor classes as 'Single Family' (residential), and about 93 acres in parcels classed 'Commercial'. The assessor layer does not record whether a house stands on each parcel. BLM's generalized surface-management layer marks the whole section 'Private or Unknown'; the parcel records are the finer source. A lode claim is valid only over federally owned minerals: on the federal pieces if the land is open to mineral entry, and on private surface only where the United States kept the minerals, where Stock-Raising Homestead Act rules require certified-mail notice to the surface owner 30 days before entry (43 CFR 3838.11). Who owns the minerals under the private parcels is not shown in the layers read, and because the notice's survey tie points outside the section (dir-001), where exactly the claim lies within the north half cannot be told from the notice.

In plain termsMost of the land in the part of Section 28 named on the claim notice is privately owned, including parcels the county classes as residential; a little over a third is federal. A mining claim can only cover minerals the federal government owns. Whether this claim sits on the federal pieces, or on private land over federal minerals (which would require notice to the landowner), cannot be told from the notice itself.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-checked and rewritten by Claude 2026-09-29 ~08:00Z. The earlier version (from five point look-ups) said the federal parcel sat in the NE quarter; the shapes show four pieces across all quarters. Method: Section 28 polygon from CadNSDI; 57 intersecting LIR parcels with geometry (saved in the research archive); 120x120 grid point-in-polygon, 14,284 cells in the section (0.045 acre each); residential count = parcels classed Single Family with at least 1 acre inside the north half. HOUSE_CNT and BUILT_YR are empty in Carbon's LIR, so no house count is claimed. Owners of private parcels are not named here on purpose. Correction 2026-09-29 (wording review): lease wording now 'approved leasing'.
newrecordconfirmed The only mineral occurrences on record near Section 28 are road-gravel pits and a CO2 field; by law common gravel cannot be claimed
2026-09-29 · dir-003 · Utah Geospatial Resource Center, Valar Atomics, Carbon County

Utah's mineral occurrence records (the USGS / Utah Geological and Mineral Survey records compiled by UGRC) list six occurrences within about 6 km of Section 28: all are sand-and-gravel pits in pediment gravels (Utah Department of Highways pits 04024, 04025 and 04026 northeast of the Wellington rodeo ground, the Wellington NE and NW gravel pits, and the Soldier Creek upper gravel pits), described as road metal, riprap and aggregate. The CRIB mineral-location layer adds one carbon dioxide occurrence. Federal law says no deposit of common varieties of sand, stone or gravel is a valuable mineral deposit under the mining laws unless it has a distinct and special value (30 U.S.C. 611), and carbon dioxide is obtained by lease, not by claim. No vein or lode deposit of a locatable mineral is on record there in these databases. A lode claim requires a vein or lode discovered within it (Utah Code 40-1-1; dir-004). Absence from these databases does not prove no mineral exists.

In plain termsThe government's mineral records for the area around the claim show only gravel pits for road building, plus some carbon dioxide underground. Ordinary gravel cannot be held with a mining claim, and carbon dioxide is obtained by lease, not by claim. A lode claim is supposed to cover a mineral vein. None is recorded there. That does not prove there is none, but it is the question Valar's claim raises.
verified 2026-09-29: Queried by Claude on 2026-09-29 (envelope about 110.62-110.76 W, 39.53-39.64 N). Correction 2026-09-29 (wording review): lease wording restated. Correction 2026-09-30 (source objectivity review): The State's map layer cited here (Utah Geospatial Resource Center, hosted on ArcGIS Online) was queried on 29 September 2026; that server's robots rules do not allow a saved copy, so none is kept and the figures rest on the cited layer as queried that day.
newrecordconfirmed No 'RW' claim is in BLM's public claim layer yet; federal rules allow 90 days after location to record it
2026-09-29 · dir-005 · Bureau of Land Management, Valar Atomics

Every claim in BLM's not-closed mining-claim layer that intersects Carbon County was pulled on 2026-09-29: ten open claims (AMBERIA 1-9 in T14S R9E, BLACK RIFLE placer in T15S R11E), none RW and none naming Valar (mine-002). A second check the same day, by legal description, found no claim, open or closed, anywhere in T14S R11E (the township of both the lease and RW 453), and no Utah claim named RW among the 134 Utah claims BLM created from September 12 to September 29. Federal rules require recording with BLM by the 90th day after location (43 CFR 3833.11), so RW 453 (located Sept 12, 2026) is due by December 11, 2026 and may simply not be filed yet.

In plain termsThe RW 453 claim is not in BLM's public database yet. The filing is not yet due: Valar has until December 11 to file it. The filing will show how many RW claims exist.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-checked 2026-09-29 ~08:00Z: where CSE_META LIKE '%0140S 0110E%' → 0 (not closed), 0 (closed); pattern validated on T14S R9E → 8; Utah claims Created >= 2026-09-12 → 134, none named RW*. Correction 2026-09-29 (wording review): the deadline sentence now reads 'the filing is not yet due'.
newrecordconfirmed County zoning map: Valar's lease is Mining & Grazing; where RW 453 was staked is zoned rural residential
2026-09-29 · dir-013 · Carbon County, Valar Atomics, Altigen JS, LLC

Carbon County's own zoning map service (the county's 'County Zoning' layer, queried 29 September 2026 at the center of each area) shows: Section 16, T14S R11E, Valar's Wellington lease, zoned M&G, 'Mining and Grazing Zone' (matching the Trust Lands memo, csite-015); the NW quarter of Section 28, where the RW 453 notice places the claim, zoned RR-1, 'One-acre Rural Residential Zone', and the NE quarter zoned RR-2.5, 'Two-and-one-half-acre Rural Residential Zone' (the notice names both quarters, fld-002); and both parcels of the 'Jurassic Spark' technology park on the 6 October Planning Commission agenda, Section 36 T14S R11E and Section 2 T15S R11E, zoned M&G (dir-015). County zoning does not govern land the United States owns (Utah Code 17-79-306), and about 37% of Section 28's north half is a federal parcel (dir-002); the rest is private land under the county's zoning. What the county's residential zones allow is set by Carbon's development code, which sits on a county site that refuses our reader.

In plain termsThe county's own zoning map puts the square mile the state approved leasing to Valar in its mining-and-grazing zone, where big industrial projects need a county permit. The land named on Valar's mining-claim notice, two miles south, is zoned for rural homes. The proposed technology park east of Wellington is in the mining-and-grazing zone.
verified 2026-09-29: Read from Carbon County's public zoning map service at the centre of each section or quarter named (BLM survey grid): Sec 16 M&G; Sec 28 NW quarter RR-1; Sec 28 NE quarter RR-2.5; Sec 36 M&G; Sec 2 T15S M&G. Quarter-center points only: zone lines inside a quarter were not mapped. Correction 2026-09-29 (wording review): lease wording now 'approved leasing'.
newrecordconfirmed Carbon County has 10 open mining claims on BLM's map; none named for Valar; nearest is about 9 km from the site approved for leasing to it
2026-09-29 · mine-002 · Bureau of Land Management, Carbon County

A spatial query of both BLM claim layers against the Census boundary of Carbon County (pulled 2026-09-29) returned 10 open claims and 1 recently closed claim. Nine are lode claims AMBERIA 1-9 (serials UT106330298 to UT106330306), created in BLM's system on 9 and 13 November 2023, status 'Filed', in T14S R8E-R9E, about 23 km west of the Trust Lands parcel approved for leasing to Valar (Sec. 16, T14S R11E, see mine-010). The tenth is the placer claim BLACK RIFLE (UT106782094), created 11 February 2026, status 'Filed', mapped to the SW quarter of the NE quarter of Sec. 12, T15S R11E, about 9.4 km south-east of that parcel. An earlier 160-acre placer claim of the same name (UT106369066, created 13 May 2024) in the NE quarter of the same section is now 'Closed'. Claims created since 1 January 2024: 2 (both BLACK RIFLE). No claim name in the county points to Valar, Ward, Valarin or Numenor, and the layer does not show who staked any of them. Distances are between section centroids from BLM's survey grid and the claims' mapped centroids.

In plain termsOn the federal record, almost nothing is staked in Carbon County, and nothing near the land the state approved leasing to Valar north of Wellington. A claim staked in the last 90 days may not be on BLM's map yet: the RW 453 claim named on a posted notice (fld-002) is not on it so far (dir-005).
verified 2026-09-29: Re-run 2026-09-29 (fresh county-polygon query, deduped): 10 open + 1 closed; AMBERIA 1-9 and BLACK RIFLE serials, dates, dispositions and legal descriptions match; distances consistent with the survey grid. Correction 2026-09-29 (wording review): lease wording now 'approved leasing'.
newrecordconfirmed Emery County: 1,706 open claims on BLM's map; 1,136 created since 2024, mostly large lode blocks near Green River
2026-09-29 · mine-003 · Bureau of Land Management, Emery County

The same query for Emery County returned 1,706 open claims (1,390 lode, 316 placer; 563 'Active', 1,143 'Filed') and 354 claims closed within the last year. Claims created in BLM's system since 1 January 2024: 968 still open and 168 closed, 1,136 in all, in 32 name groups. The largest: 'SS' (341 lode claims, January to April 2024, mostly T23S R15E with some in T23S R14E and T22S R15E); 'GP' (90 placer, August 2025, T22S R8E-R9E); 'GREEN' (83 lode, January 2024, all now closed); 'SAB' (71), 'ECC' (70) and 'SWG' (63), lode claims of May to August 2024 in T22S R15E; 'J' (56 lode), 'GRU' (56 placer, August 2025), 'WB' (54 lode); 'BH' (43 lode, February 2026, T18S R10E-R11E) and 'BIG BODY' (31 lode, February-March 2026, T22S R14E). None of the 1,136 names points to Valar or its product names. The public layer shows neither the claimants nor the mineral sought.

In plain termsEmery County is where claim staking is active, mostly in big numbered blocks south and west of Green River. Nothing in the names ties any of it to Valar. Who is behind each block can be looked up by serial number (mine-031).
verified 2026-09-29: Re-run 2026-09-29: all counts, group sizes, dates and townships reproduced; wording on the SS block's townships made exact.
newrecordconfirmed Utah: 7,325 claims entered BLM's system in 12 months; new lode claims cluster in Beaver, Millard and Washington
2026-09-29 · mine-004 · Bureau of Land Management

Querying both BLM layers for Utah serial numbers created on or after 29 September 2025 returned 7,139 open and 186 closed claims (7,325). Of the open ones 5,872 are lode, 1,260 placer and 7 mill sites; their dispositions are 'Filed' (7,089), 'Under Review' (27), 'Active' (12) and 'Draft' (11); all 186 closed ones are lode. Assigning each claim's mapped centroid to a county: lode claims are most numerous in Beaver (1,570), Millard (944), Washington (812), Tooele (670), Box Elder (590), Juab (419), Iron (250) and San Juan (196); Emery has 76 (all lode) and Carbon has none (its one new claim is a placer). 73 open claims have no mapped geometry. Emery's 76 are the BH (43, February 2026), BIG BODY (31, February-March 2026) and WF (2, March 2026) blocks; its 53 closed ones (GV 36 and WHEAL ANNE 16, filed October 2025, and FT 1, January 2026) were filed and closed within the year. The 38 labelled 'Draft' or 'Under Review' are in Garfield (11 Draft), Tooele (8), Iron, Piute, Utah and Wasatch counties, or not yet located (15); none is in Carbon or Emery. No new Utah claim carries a Valar-related name (mine-005).

In plain termsThis is a resident's list of new or pending ('proposed') lode claims: about 5,900 new lode claims statewide in a year, almost all labelled 'Filed' by BLM. Very few are in Carbon or Emery counties, and none is named for the company.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-run 2026-09-29 with the same 12-month window (from 2025-09-29): 7,139 open + 186 closed, product, disposition and county tallies reproduced (Box Elder 590 with full-resolution county outlines). BLM's definitions of 'Filed' vs 'Active' were not readable (mlrs.blm.gov help pages did not render for our tools).
newrecordconfirmed No mining claim anywhere in BLM's public layers is named Valar, Numenor, Windlord or Ward 250
2026-09-29 · mine-005 · Bureau of Land Management, Valar Atomics

Name searches of both claim layers nationwide (open claims, and claims closed within the last year) for VALAR, VALARIN, NUMENOR, WINDLORD, WARD 250, WARD ZERO, WARD ONE, WARD 1 and WARD250 returned only unrelated names: VALARIE QUEEN (Nevada) and WARD 1 (Nevada), both old claims carried into BLM's new system in January 2021; Ward 1 (Montana, filed 16 September 2026); GOLDEN REWARD 1 (Washington); Sweet Reward 1 (Idaho); and a closed WESTWARD 1 (Colorado). In Utah the only claim name containing WARD is EDWARD PEARL (an old claim carried over in 2021). BLM's public 3809 notice, plan-of-operations and lease/permit/easement layers show no case with Valar as customer anywhere; the only Valar records are three rights-of-way applications (mine-006).

In plain termsIf the company or its people had staked claims under an obvious name, it would show here, and nothing does. That is not proof they hold no claims: a claim can carry any name, and the public map does not show who owns a claim. What BLM's public layers do show under Valar's name is three land-use applications, and no mining notices, mining plans or claims.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-run 2026-09-29: same 6 hits (5 open, 1 closed) plus EDWARD PEARL in Utah; dates corrected: VALARIE QUEEN, WARD 1 (NV) and EDWARD PEARL carry legacy serials, so '2021' is BLM's system-migration date, not a staking date. Plain field no longer implies the name search proves how Valar got land.
newanalysisconfirmed The Green River gigasite footprint holds no mining claims: the route there is a federal land-use application, not claims
2026-09-29 · mine-007 · Valar Atomics, Bureau of Land Management

The Green River Gigasite application (UTUT106784007) lists 22 sections: T20S R14E secs. 24-25; T20S R15E secs. 19-21, 25-31 and 33-35; T21S R15E secs. 1, 3-5 and 12; T21S R16E secs. 5-6. None of the 2,060 Emery County claims in either BLM claim layer (open, or closed within the year) lists any of those sections. The nearest claim activity is in other sections of the same and neighboring townships (e.g. the GFU placers in T21S R15E and GRU placers in T21S R16E, August 2025). The application skips sections 32 and 36 of T20S R15E and section 2 of T21S R15E.

In plain termsOn this site, the company did not use mining claims. It asked BLM directly for the land under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which is the ordinary, reviewable way to seek a non-mining use of public land (see mine-028).
verified 2026-09-29: Re-run 2026-09-29: the case's legal description lists exactly these 22 sections; none of the 2,060 Emery claims (open + closed within the year) lists any of them; GFU/GRU placers sit in other sections of T21S R15E-R16E.
newanalysisconfirmed Valar reached its reactor sites by lease, BLM applications and purchase; separately it staked lode claim RW 453
2026-09-29 · mine-027 · Valar Atomics, Bureau of Land Management, Utah Trust Lands Administration, Emery County

Checking each route to a reactor site against the record: the Carbon site is state trust land that Trust Lands approved leasing to Valar (mine-010, mine-011), where federal claims cannot be staked (mine-021); the Green River and 'Project Beehive' sites are FLPMA land-use applications to BLM (mine-006), with no claims in the Green River footprint (mine-007); the Emery expansion is a land purchase from Emery County (mine-018); the test reactor sits on the state's lab by agreement (orig-045). No mining claim, 3809 notice or plan of operations in BLM's public layers is linked to Valar by name or customer (mine-005, mine-030). Federal law allows an unpatented claim to be used only for prospecting, mining or processing (mine-022, mine-023). Separately, the posted notice shows Valar located the RW 453 lode claim in Section 28, two miles south of the lease, on 12 September 2026 (fld-002, csite-019); it is not yet in BLM's layers, which is within the 90-day filing window (dir-005).

In plain termsOn the record, the company has not been using mining claims to get land for reactors; it has used leases, federal land-use applications and a purchase, each of which leaves a paper trail. A posted notice shows a Valar mining claim, RW 453, two miles south of the lease; what mineral it claims is not stated anywhere read (disc-003).
verified 2026-09-29: Re-checked 2026-09-29 against the re-verified facts it cites (mine-005, -006, -007, -010, -011, -018, -021, -022, -023, -030); the conclusion holds on the records read. Three other federal land cases near the parcel that could explain survey stakes are now recorded (mine-049, mine-050). Updated 2026-09-29 by Claude for the RW 453 notice (fld-002). Correction 2026-09-29 (wording review): use-limit sentence restated as what the law allows; lease wording now 'approved leasing'.
newrecordconfirmed Valar holds no BLM mining notice, plan of operations, lease, permit or easement anywhere in the public layers
2026-09-29 · mine-030 · Valar Atomics, Bureau of Land Management

Queries of BLM's public MLRS layers for 'VALAR' in the customer or case name returned 0 locatable-mineral notices, 0 plans of operations and 0 leases/permits/easements nationwide, and 3 rights-of-way cases (mine-006). The layers include pending and authorized cases.

In plain termsOn federal land, Valar has asked for land-use rights three times and has no mining activity of any kind on file.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-run 2026-09-29: 0 notices, 0 plans, 0 leases/permits/easements, 3 rights-of-way. The notices layer description confirms it holds 'Authorized' or 'Pending' cases.
newrecordconfirmed Land around the Wellington parcel is federal (BLM); the lease section itself is state trust land
2026-09-29 · mine-034 · Bureau of Land Management, Utah Trust Lands Administration

BLM's Surface Management Agency map, queried at the centers of the surrounding sections of T14S R11E on 29 September 2026, shows Section 16 managed by the State and Sections 10, 15, 17, 20, 21 and 22 managed by BLM (Sections 8 and 9 were not returned by the survey-grid query). The lease map in the September Trust Lands packet shows the parcel with a legend of Bureau of Land Management, private and state trust lands. The surrounding BLM land is the kind of land where federal mining claims can be staked unless it has been withdrawn; BLM's public claim layer shows none there (mine-002).

In plain termsThe square mile approved for leasing to Valar is state land, ringed by federal land. Someone could stake mining claims on the federal land next door, but none appears on BLM's map. The RW 453 notice places that claim in Section 28, where county parcel records show a 200-acre federal parcel in four pieces and private land covering most of the section, including about 63% of its north half (dir-002).
verified 2026-09-29: Re-run 2026-09-29: SMA point queries give State for Sec. 16 and BLM for Secs. 10, 15, 17, 20, 21, 22 (8 and 9 again not returned); the lease map legend (Sept packet p. 29) shows BLM, private and state trust land. Updated 2026-09-29 by Claude for the RW 453 notice (fld-002). Correction 2026-09-29 (wording review): lease wording now 'approved leasing'.
newrecordconfirmed No record read ties Valar's reactor fuel to Utah uranium; its enriched feedstock would be shipped in
2026-09-29 · mine-038 · Valar Atomics, U.S. Department of Energy

The Trust Lands memorandum says HALEU, LEU+ or LEU feedstock may be delivered to the Carbon site in certified special-nuclear-material containers under NRC, DOT and DOE rules and made into TRISO fuel there. POWER magazine's 19 June 2026 report on Ward 250 noted Utah hosts the nation's only fully licensed operating conventional uranium mill, but said it would add details on fuel sourcing later. POWER's report on DOE's second round of HALEU allocations (27 August 2025) names Antares, Standard Nuclear and Abilene Christian University/Natura as recipients; it mentions Valar only as a Reactor Pilot Program participant. No record read names the supplier of Ward 250's fuel or of Valar's planned feedstock, and none links it to Utah mines or mills. The claims staking in Emery County (mine-003) and the uranium exploration notices there (mine-029) show no link to Valar.

In plain termsValar plans to make its own fuel pellets, but from uranium that has already been enriched elsewhere and trucked in. Where that uranium comes from is not public in anything we read. Local uranium mining and Valar's fuel are, on the record, separate stories.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read 2026-09-29: memo p. 27 quote exact; POWER Ward 250 article (19 June 2026) and HALEU article (dated 27 Aug 2025, not 26 Aug) match.
newrecordconfirmed Every Valar site on record, Sept 29, 2026: one test reactor, one lease, three pending BLM files, one stalled abroad
2026-09-29 · plan-017 · Valar Atomics, Bureau of Land Management, Utah Trust Lands Administration, Emery County

Built or operating: Ward 250 and its fuel lab at the San Rafael lab, Emery County (plan-002); the company's design, machining and test shops in Hawthorne/Torrance, California (plan-008). Used once: the NOVA test core at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center, Nevada, operated by Los Alamos in November 2025 (orig-008). Being acquired: the 112-acre Emery County parcel beside the lab (gov-022, loc-014). Lease approved: on 17 September 2026 the state trust-lands board approved a lease with purchase option for 480 acres of the section north of Wellington, with the other 160 acres to follow if the National Guard's lease there is moved (mine-011, plan-016); no record read shows the lease signed. Applied for: three Bureau of Land Management cases, all in the Price Field Office, all 'Pending' on 29 September 2026: UTUT106784007 'Green River Gigasite Small Modular Reactor/Data Center' (10,270.61 acres, filed 13 February 2026, which Valar told The Washington Sun it no longer pursues, mine-008), UTUT106801248 'Project Beehive Small Modular Reactor/Data Center' (case date 13 April 2026, no acreage shown), and UTUT106833224, a distribution-line case with no name (entered 23 July 2026). NPR reported on 30 September 2026, citing a Valar proposal to federal regulators that NPR reviewed, that Project Beehive would cover over 9,000 acres of BLM land near Price with data centers, some 456 small reactors of 25 megawatts of electricity each, a fuel facility and nuclear-waste storage, with the first reactors in 2028; BLM's Utah office told NPR it had received an application and was reviewing it for completeness. The proposal itself was not found in public records. No BLM rights-of-way case names Valar outside Utah, and its other public layers show no Valar claims, notices, leases or permits (mine-005, mine-030). Program: NRIC's August 2026 Launch Pad round includes Valar; POWER describes Ward 250 and the Valarin facility (gov-010). Abroad: Ward One in the Philippines, announced March 2025 and still unbuilt and without an approved site as of the last report read (orig-064). Valar says it looked at more than 20 states (ppl-006, loc-001); no site in another state was found in any public record read.

In plain termsHere is the whole map as far as public records go. One small test reactor is running in Emery County, next to a fuel lab. The reactors are built in the Los Angeles area. Valar is buying land next to the Emery lab and has state approval to lease most of a square mile of state land in Carbon County. It asked the federal land agency about three more Utah sites, one of them over 10,000 acres near Green River, which it now says it dropped. NPR has since reported that another, 'Project Beehive' near Price, is planned for about 456 small reactors on over 9,000 acres of federal land. A planned reactor in the Philippines has not been built.
verified 2026-09-29: Verify pass 2026-09-29: BLM layer re-queried (CUST_NM_SEC like VALAR): three Utah cases, all Pending, Price Field Office; Green River 10,270.61 acres, case date 13 Feb 2026; latest modification 15 Sept 2026. Fixed: lease wording overstated (board approval; initial 480 acres; signing not found); Launch Pad wording corrected. Correction 2026-09-29 (wording review): earlier fix note reworded (lease wording).
newanalysisreported The Emery parcel Valar was allowed to test (04-0019-0030) is 112.7 acres, matching the ~110 acres it says it is buying
2026-09-29 · mine-046 · Emery County, Valar Atomics, Utah Geospatial Resource Center

Emery County's 17 February 2026 agenda listed an MOU letting Valar do site-suitability testing on parcel 04-0019-0030 (orig-046). Utah's statewide parcel layer (UGRC, Emery County assessor data current as of 17 July 2024) shows that parcel as 112.7 acres, north-west of Orangeville; its centre lies within about 0.5 km of the other parcels in the same 04-0019 block. Valar said on 20 August 2026 that it was buying about 110 acres north of the lab from Emery County (mine-018). The sizes match, but no record read says the purchase is this parcel; the layer carries no owner names or addresses and predates any sale.

In plain termsThe land Emery County let Valar test in February is very likely the land Valar is now buying next to the energy lab. The county's sale record or deed would confirm it, along with the price.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-checked 2026-09-29: parcel ID, 112.7 acres and 17 July 2024 as-of date confirmed in the UGRC layer; Emery agenda quote exact. Removed the claim that it shares a block with '1095 N Coal Haul Rd' and the road reference: no parcel in the 04-0019 block carries an address in the layer. Date set to the analysis date.
newrecordconfirmed 70 new Utah claims have no location yet on BLM's map, incl. 30 'DOME HILL' (Aug 28) and 19 filed Sept 25, 2026
2026-09-25 · mine-045 · Bureau of Land Management

Of the 7,139 open Utah claims filed in the last 12 months, 70 have neither a map shape nor a legal description in the public layer, so their county cannot be told. They include 30 lode claims 'DOME HILL #' (UT106842998 to UT106843027, all created 28 August 2026, 'Filed'); 19 claims created 25 September 2026 named Bromide, COPPER KING, COPPER CREEK, PROSPECTORS DREAM and KIMBALL & TURNER (serials UT106849937 to UT106849973; 13 'Under Review', 6 'Filed'); and small groups from 29 September 2025 to July 2026 (SALT CREEK, SM, CC, HATCHS HAUL and single claims). None of the names points to Valar. Until BLM adds their legal descriptions, any of them could lie in Carbon County.

In plain termsA handful of very recent claims are not yet placed on BLM's map. None of the 37 Utah claims BLM shows as created since 12 September 2026 is an RW claim, so Valar's RW 453 (fld-002) has not been recorded with BLM as of 29 September. Looking up one of these serial numbers in BLM's records, or checking BLM's map once it places them, would show where they are.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-run 2026-09-29: 70 claims with neither shape nor legal description (73 lack a shape; 3 of those have a legal description); DOME HILL and 25 Sept groups match. Fixed: the small groups start 29 Sept 2025 (SALT CREEK), not October. Updated 2026-09-29 by Claude for the RW 453 notice (fld-002).
newcompany claimreported Valar told The Washington Sun it dropped the 10,200-acre site; BLM's public record still lists it Pending
2026-09-18 · mine-008 · Valar Atomics, Bureau of Land Management, The Washington Sun

The Washington Sun (Mara Hoplamazian and Jade Lozada, published and updated 18 September 2026) reported that the largest data-center proposal it found on BLM land 'appears to be' a 10,200-acre project from Valar Atomics at a site near Green River, Utah, and that Valar had a second Utah proposal it called the 'Raceway Gigasite', with no estimated size. An editor's note added after publication says Valar contacted the paper, confirmed it had applied 'for survey access' at the 10,200-acre site, and that a company spokesperson said it had decided not to pursue the project. On 29 September 2026 BLM's public layer still showed UTUT106784007 as 'Pending' (last modified 26 May 2026) and titled for a reactor and data center, not a survey. No BLM case named 'Raceway' appears in any public MLRS layer; the only other Valar case with a site name is 'Project Beehive' (mine-006). Whether 'Raceway' and 'Beehive' are the same site is not shown in any record read.

In plain termsWhat the company says now (the Green River site is dropped; it was a request to survey) and what the federal record shows (a pending application titled for a reactor and data center) do not yet match. That can be ordinary paperwork lag: a withdrawal letter may simply not have reached the public map. BLM's case file would show whether and when Valar withdrew, and what it asked for.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read 2026-09-29: article and editor's note match (quote exact, 14 words); BLM status re-queried live, still Pending, not modified since 26 May 2026.
newrecordconfirmed A posted notice names Valar's 'RW 453' lode claim, 2 miles south of the lease; not yet on BLM's map
2026-09-12 · csite-019 · Valar Atomics, Bureau of Land Management, Carbon County

A Notice of Location is posted at one of the claim markers (fld-001, fld-002; the photo was re-read for this check). It names Valar Atomics Inc as locator of the 'RW 453' Lode Mining Claim in the NW and NE quarters of Section 28, T14S R11E, Salt Lake Principal Meridian, Carbon County, located on the 12th (handwritten) of September 2026. Section 28 lies two sections (about two miles) south of Section 16, which the state approved leasing to Valar, in the same township. A fresh query of BLM's not-closed mining-claim layer on 29 September 2026 still shows only 10 open claims in Carbon County, none named RW or Valar; the nearest, the BLACK RIFLE placer (UT106782094), is about 9.4 km south-east of Section 16 (mine-002). That absence is expected for now: federal rules allow 90 days after location to record a claim with BLM (dir-005), and Utah law requires a copy of the notice to be recorded with the county recorder within 30 days of posting, about 12 October 2026 for RW 453 (mine-026, dir-004). The number 453 suggests a series, but one notice does not show how many claims exist. Section 16 itself is state trust land, which federal mining claims cannot cover (mine-021, mine-034); county parcel records show part of Section 28 is federal (dir-002). The notice does not name a mineral; the only mineral occurrences on record nearby are gravel pits and carbon dioxide (dir-003, disc-003). Other sources of stakes exist nearby: easements and a Guard lease on Section 16 (csite-003), Valar's own site surveys allowed under the lease (mine-015), and PacifiCorp's pending transmission line, which crosses sections 19, 29, 30, 34 and 35 of the township (mine-049). BLM's rights-of-way layer shows Valar's three pending cases unchanged (Green River, Beehive, and UTUT106833224, which BLM lists as a pending distribution line with no location; mine-006). Of the 7,139 Utah claims created in the 12 months to 29 September 2026, 77 still had no legal description on BLM's layer, so new claims can take time to appear.

In plain termsThe posted notice settles who staked at least one of the markers: the posted notice names Valar Atomics and a mining claim called RW 453, staked on September 12, 2026, two miles south of the land the state approved leasing to Valar. It is not yet in the federal claim database, which is normal: the company has 30 days to record it with the county and 90 days with the federal land agency. A mining claim is for finding and mining a mineral, and federal law limits it to prospecting, mining and processing uses until the government grants title (see disc-003); the notice does not say which mineral, and why a nuclear company staked it is not explained in any record read. The county recorder's copy, due by about October 12, is the next public record to check.
verified 2026-09-29: Rewritten 2026-09-29. The earlier conclusion ('Valar has no mining claims') is refuted by the posted notice (fld-002), read again for this check. BLM layers re-queried 29 Sept: 10 open Carbon County claims (AMBERIA 1-9, BLACK RIFLE), none RW or Valar; Valar ROW cases UTUT106784007, UTUT106801248, UTUT106833224 unchanged. Kind changed from analysis to fact. Second check 29 Sept 2026: BLM right-of-way layer lists UTUT106833224 as 'DISTRIBUTION LINE' (not a pipeline product); corrected. The 90-day BLM and 30-day county deadlines and the use limit now cite the statutes read (43 U.S.C. 1744(b), Utah Code 40-1-4, 30 U.S.C. 612(a)). PacifiCorp UTUT106794107 sections 19, 29, 30, 34, 35 confirmed. Correction 2026-09-29 (wording review): plain restates the use limit neutrally; lease wording now 'approved leasing' (duplicate entry in this note removed in review).
newrecordconfirmed Posted notice: Valar Atomics Inc located the 'RW 453' lode mining claim in Carbon County on Sept. 12, 2026
2026-09-12 · fld-002 · Valar Atomics, Carbon County, Bureau of Land Management

The Notice of Location posted at the claim's location monument reads: locator Valar Atomics Inc, 20333 Normandie Ave, Torrance, CA 90501; the 'RW 453' Lode Mining Claim in quarter sections NW and NE of Section 28, Township 14S, Range 11E, Salt Lake Principal Meridian, Carbon County, Utah; located on the 12th day of September 2026 (the day written by hand). The claim is about 1,500 by 600 feet (1,490 feet east and 10 feet west of the monument, 300 feet each side), which is the largest size a single lode claim may take. It ties the claim's NW corner to the permanent monument at the SE corner of Section 32 (see dir-001 for a problem with that tie). The number 453 suggests a numbered series of claims, but one notice does not show how many exist; BLM's public layer does not list any RW claim yet (dir-005).

In plain termsThis is the paper a company must post on the ground when it stakes a mining claim. It names Valar Atomics as the claimant, gives the exact survey section, and dates the staking to September 12, 2026. A lode claim is a claim to a mineral vein or deposit in federal land; under federal law an unpatented claim may be used only for prospecting, mining or processing and uses reasonably incident to them (30 U.S.C. 612; disc-003).
verified 2026-09-29: Transcribed by Claude from the photo; the handwritten day reads 12. Correction 2026-09-30 (source objectivity review): reworded the plain-language text.
newanalysisreported The notice's survey tie, as written, points about 1.5 miles west of the section corner, outside Section 28
2026-09-12 · dir-001 · Valar Atomics, Carbon County

The RW 453 notice (fld-002) ties the claim's NW corner to the permanent monument at the SE corner of Section 32, T14S R11E: 'approximately 8179 feet at an azimuth of 265.3 degrees'. BLM's survey grid puts that corner at about 39.5570 N, 110.7025 W. An azimuth of 265.3 degrees is almost due west; 8,179 feet that way ends near 39.555 N, 110.73 W, about two miles from Section 28, which lies to the north (39.572-39.586 N). The same distance at about 5 degrees (nearly due north) lands in Section 28's north half (39.579 N, 110.700 W), so the bearing looks like an error. This is Claude's calculation from the notice and BLM's section geometry, not a survey.

In plain termsA claim notice has to say where the claim is by measuring from a known survey marker. This notice's measurement points the wrong way: followed as written, it leads to ground well west of the section the notice itself names. It is probably a typo. Utah law expects the notice to identify the claim by reference to a permanent monument (Utah Code 40-1-2), so a surveyor or attorney could say whether it matters.
verified 2026-09-29: Computed by Claude; a licensed surveyor should confirm.
newrecordconfirmed Trust Lands memo: Valar's Carbon County site is Sec. 16 T14S R11E, 5 miles north of Wellington, for a nuclear 'campus'
2026-08-20 · mine-010 · Utah Trust Lands Administration, Valar Atomics, Carbon County

The Utah Trust Lands Administration's 20 August 2026 board memorandum (Discussion Item 9A) names the applicant as Valar Atomics Inc. and the land as T14S, R11E, Section 16, 640 acres of state trust land about five miles north of Wellington, benefiting the Public Schools Trust. It confirms that the Special Use Lease Agreement 'SULA 2095 OBA' on the August agenda (orig-044) is this parcel. The stated purpose is an integrated nuclear energy, advanced manufacturing, critical mineral refining and data center campus: developing, manufacturing and operating high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) for power, plus possible TRISO fuel manufacturing, concrete batch plants, component manufacturing, hydrogen and synthetic fuels, data centers, water desalination and steel making. It is an 'Other Business Arrangement' because it includes an option to buy the land. Staff at the meeting described the site as about six miles east of Price and said Valar chose it after a multi-state search.

In plain termsThe Carbon County site is not a single test reactor. The state land office describes a long-term industrial campus built around several reactors, with possible fuel making, factories and data centers, on a square mile of school trust land north of Wellington, with the right to buy the land later.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read 2026-09-29 (packet re-downloaded, identical to the stored copy): memo pp. 23-24 and transcript (Torgerson: 'about six miles east of Price', 'multi-state search') match; quote exact (14 words). Plain field softened: the memo lists fuel making and data centers as activities that 'could' be included.
newrecordconfirmed A February permit application (applicant not named) covered nearly all of Section 16, where the state approved leasing 480 acres to Valar in September
2026-04-09 · dir-036 · Utah Trust Lands Administration, Valar Atomics, Utah National Guard

Right-of-entry permit application 7675 (Trust Lands permit map, 18 February 2026) covers nearly all of Section 16, T14S R11E, SLB&M, north of Wellington: 634.32 acres (the map leaves out a small southeast corner). Trust Lands' map for Special Use Lease Agreement No. 2095, produced 9 April 2026 and posted by the RDCC on 20 April 2026 as a 'Lease Agreement with possible option to purchase' (project 87203), covers the north half and southwest quarter of the same section: 480 acres. The Trust Lands board memorandum says the Utah National Guard's lease, SULA 1321, occupies the section's southeast quarter (160 acres). The board approved SULA 2095 with Valar Atomics on 17 September 2026, per the meeting transcript (mine-011). No record read names the applicant for 7675 or shows the permit was issued.

In plain termsAn application for a permit to study nearly all of a square mile north of Wellington was logged in February; the records do not name who applied. In September the state approved leasing three quarters of that square mile (480 acres) to Valar. The fourth quarter is leased to the Utah National Guard.
verified 2026-09-30: Read 30 Sept 2026: the permit 7675 map, the SULA 2095 lease map and its RDCC record, and the 17 Sept 2026 board memorandum (packet pages 17-29). From BLM's survey grid the section computes to about 652 acres and the N2+SW4 to about 489 acres; the figures in the text are Trust Lands' own. Skeptic pass 2026-09-30 (two independent checks): applications not issued permits; 'nearly all' of Section 16; areas recomputed on the ellipsoid.
newrecordconfirmed Other federal cases near the lease: a pending PacifiCorp power line crosses its township; oil and gas roads lie north
2026-04-06 · mine-049 · PacifiCorp, Urban Oil & Gas Group LLC, Bureau of Land Management

BLM's public rights-of-way layer (queried 29 September 2026) shows PacifiCorp as applicant on a pending 'Power Transmission Line' case, UTUT106794107 (created 6 April 2026; 14,262 acres of mapped legal area), whose legal description runs from T13S R10E in Carbon County south-east through Emery County to T25S R21E. It includes parts of sections 19, 29, 30, 34 and 35 of T14S R11E, the township that holds Section 16 (approved for leasing to Valar); those sections' centres lie roughly 2 to 4 miles from the centre of Section 16. In the township directly north (T13S R11E) and in T13S R10E, Urban Oil & Gas Group LLC has eight road, pipeline and water-facility rights-of-way whose records were created in August 2026 (seven 'Authorized', one road 'Pending'). The other new Carbon County cases since June 2025 are a PacifiCorp distribution line (T13S R7E), a Price City water facility (T12S R9E) and a Union Pacific communications site (T13S R10E). No record read links any of these to Valar.

In plain termsSurvey stakes north of Wellington could belong to projects other than Valar's. A power company has a pending application for a long transmission line that passes a few miles from the square mile approved for leasing to Valar, and an oil and gas operator has new road and pipeline permits just to the north. The posted RW 453 notice names Valar (fld-002); these cases are other activity in the area.
verified 2026-09-29: Found during verification 2026-09-29 (query of all Carbon and Emery rights-of-way and lease cases created since 1 June 2025; legal descriptions read in full). Section distances from the standard one-mile survey grid. Updated 2026-09-29 by Claude for the RW 453 notice (fld-002). Correction 2026-09-29 (wording review): lease wording now 'approved leasing'.
newrecordconfirmed Four applications for state site-study permits on about 8,300 acres for 'industrial and manufacturing development' were posted Feb. 19, 2026; none names the applicant
2026-02-19 · dir-035 · Utah Trust Lands Administration, Resource Development Coordinating Committee, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

On 19 February 2026 the state's Resource Development Coordinating Committee (RDCC) posted four applications for Trust Lands right-of-entry (site-study) permits as projects 87096 to 87099, numbered 7672, 7674, 7675 and 7676. Comments were due 3 March and the stated start was 6 March. Each notice says that Trust Lands 'has received a Right-of-Entry (ROE) permit application' for cultural-resource surveys, geotechnical investigations and similar studies 'to evaluate the feasibility of a potential industrial and manufacturing development', and that 'No permanent development is proposed under the Right-of-Entry authorization.' Trust Lands' permit maps, dated 18 February 2026, give the areas: 7672, 1,812.94 acres near Green River (T20S R15E and T21S R15-16E, Emery County); 7674, 5,381.59 acres south and west of Price (T14-15S R9-10E, Carbon County); 7675, 634.32 acres, nearly all of Section 16, T14S R11E, north of Wellington (Carbon County; the map leaves out a small southeast corner); 7676, 487.83 acres in Sections 2 and 16, T16S R13E (Emery County). That is 8,316.68 acres in all. The notices record that local governments were contacted on 19 February. The only state comments were Division of Wildlife Resources recommendations of 3 March 2026: three of the areas are crucial year-long pronghorn habitat; white-tailed prairie dogs, burrowing owls and kit foxes could occur; and hawks are known to nest near two of the areas. No applicant is named in the four notices, the four maps or the comment letters, and no record read shows the permits were issued: the register lists all four as 'State Comment Published'.

In plain termsIn February the state logged four applications for permits to survey and test about 8,300 acres of state land in Carbon and Emery counties for possible industrial development. The public records do not say who applied, or show that the permits were issued. One of the four covers nearly all of the square mile where the state later approved leasing 480 acres to Valar.
verified 2026-09-30: Read 30 Sept 2026: the RDCC records (all fields; dates converted from epoch ms, UTC and Mountain time), all four permit maps (raster PDFs, read as images; acreage legends zoomed at full resolution) and the four comment letters in full. The acreages sum to 8,316.68. Copies are archived with checksums. Skeptic pass 2026-09-30 (two independent checks): applications not issued permits; 'nearly all' of Section 16; areas recomputed on the ellipsoid.
newrecordconfirmed Near Green River, one of permit application 7672's sections (applicant not named) is state land that Valar's BLM application surrounds
2026-02-18 · dir-037 · Utah Trust Lands Administration, Bureau of Land Management, Valar Atomics

Right-of-entry permit application 7672 (1,812.94 acres; Trust Lands permit map, 18 February 2026) lies within Sections 32 and 36 of T20S R15E, Sections 10 and 11 of T21S R15E and Section 6 of T21S R16E, near Green River in Emery County. The permit map file is named for, and draws beside it, Special Use Lease Agreement No. 1622 (2,441.03 acres); no record read names that lease's holder. Overlaid on BLM's case map for Valar's pending 'Green River Gigasite' right-of-way application (UTUT106784007), Section 32 of T20S R15E lies wholly inside the application's outer boundary and is the only hole in the case map (about 637 acres): state land the application surrounds. The case map also covers about 467 acres of Section 6, T21S R16E (the part that is not state land); the permit application's state land there lies outside it. Sections 36, 10 and 11 lie outside it; they border it, but no part falls inside it. No record read names the applicant for 7672 or shows the permit was issued. BLM still lists Valar's application as pending; Valar told a reporter it has decided not to pursue the site (mine-008).

In plain termsNear Green River, one of the four February permit applications covers a square mile of state land that Valar's federal application surrounds on all sides. The records do not say who applied. BLM still lists Valar's application as pending, though Valar told a reporter it has decided not to pursue the site.
verified 2026-09-30: Computed 30 Sept 2026 from BLM's survey-grid sections and BLM's case map for UTUT106784007 as saved on 29 Sept 2026 (UTC; 28 Sept local time); BLM's case server refused a new request on 30 Sept (HTTP 403), which was not worked around. On an ellipsoidal equal-area computation the case map has three outer parts (about 13,780, 199 and 82 acres) and one hole, Section 32 (about 637 acres). Sections 36 (T20S R15E) and 2 (T21S R15E) are notches in its edge, not holes. Every figure and sentence was checked twice, independently, against the records. Skeptic pass 2026-09-30 (two independent checks): applications not issued permits; 'nearly all' of Section 16; areas recomputed on the ellipsoid.
newrecordconfirmed BLM records show three pending Valar land applications in its Price office, incl. a 10,270-acre 'Green River Gigasite'
2026-02-13 · mine-006 · Valar Atomics, Bureau of Land Management, BLM Price Field Office

BLM's public rights-of-way layer lists Valar Atomics as 'Applicant' on three pending cases, all filed with the Price Field Office (the office that handles most rights-of-way cases in Carbon and Emery counties in the same layer): (1) UTUT106784007, 'Green River Gigasite Small Modular Reactor/Data Center', a FLPMA land-use case, 'Pending' since 13 February 2026 (last modified 26 May 2026), 10,270.61 acres in T20S-T21S, R14E-R16E, north-west of the town of Green River in Emery County; (2) UTUT106801248, 'Project Beehive Small Modular Reactor/Data Center', 'Pending' (disposition date 13 April 2026, record created 30 April, last modified 15 September 2026), with no land description or map in the public layer; (3) UTUT106833224, filed under BLM's 'Oil and Gas Pipelines' product with the commodity 'DISTRIBUTION LINE', created 23 July 2026, 'Pending', also with no land shown and no case name. None of the three involves mining claims. No Federal Register notice naming Valar for any of them was found (mine-009).

In plain termsBesides the reactor at the state lab, Valar has asked the federal government for the use of public land for at least one very large reactor-and-data-center site near Green River (about 16 square miles), for a second site called 'Project Beehive' whose location is not public, and for a third case BLM files as a pipeline ('distribution line'), location not shown. These are applications, not approvals. They can be seen in BLM's public case map, but no public notice of them was found (mine-009).
verified 2026-09-29: Re-run 2026-09-29: all three cases, dates, acreage, legal description and 'Pending' status match. BLM's Price Field Office web page does not list its counties, so the coverage wording now rests on the case layer itself; the third case is described by BLM's own category (pipeline), not guessed as power or gas.
newrecordconfirmed Utah uranium today: one producer (Energy Fuels) and the nation's only conventional uranium mill, near Blanding
2025 · mine-037 · Utah Geological Survey, Energy Fuels, Anfield, IsoEnergy, Utah Department of Environmental Quality

The Utah Geological Survey's 'Utah mining 2024' (Circular 139, 2025) says Energy Fuels is the only uranium producer in Utah, having restarted its Beaver, La Sal and Pandora mines in early 2024 (29,780 tons of ore worth about $13 million), and that its mill outside Blanding is the only conventional uranium mill in the United States; not all the uranium it processes is from Utah ore. It lists the Velvet-Wood mine near Monticello (plan approved in early June 2025 after a federal fast-track), Anfield's plan to restart the Shootaring Canyon mill near Ticaboo in 2027, IsoEnergy's Tony M project and the Harts Point exploration project. None is in Carbon or Emery County. Utah DEQ licenses the White Mesa mill (license UT1900479) since Utah became an Agreement State for uranium mills in August 2004.

In plain termsUtah does produce uranium, but in the south-east corner of the state, not in Carbon or Emery counties, and the ore is processed at one mill near Blanding. Nothing in these records connects that uranium to Valar.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read 2026-09-29: Circular 139 (re-downloaded, identical) p. 17 and Utah DEQ White Mesa page (licence UT1900479; Agreement State for mills August 2004) match; quote exact.
newrecordreported Emery site land: Valar's reactor sits on an 11-acre allotment at the state-owned lab the state bought from Emery County
2025-10-10 · mine-035 · Valar Atomics, Utah San Rafael Energy Lab, Emery County, ETV News

ETV News (Susanna Watts, 10 October 2025) reported that the Utah Office of Energy Development bought the San Rafael Energy Lab in July 2024 after Emery County had run it for two years, that Valar's buildings were going up on an 11-acre allotment there, and that Valar must show that under worst-case conditions no damage or radiation passes the fence line of those 11 acres. At the Trust Lands hearings the Office of Energy Development's deputy directors said their office owns and operates the lab and that Valar is its tenant on state land. Valar later said it was buying about 110 acres north of the lab from Emery County (mine-018).

In plain termsThe test reactor is on a small fenced plot inside a state research campus, not on Valar's own land. The planned expansion onto county land next door would make Valar a landowner there.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read 2026-09-29: ETV byline, date and quotes exact. State ownership now also from OED statements in the TLA transcripts; the 11-acre allotment and fence-line test rest on the one ETV report, so 'reported'.
newrecordconfirmed Emery's BLM mining notices: five uranium exploration notices since 2024, incl. C2C Nuclear's, plus gypsum work
2025-01-24 · mine-029 · C2C Nuclear Inc, Pinon Ridge Mining LLC, Pegasus Resources Inc, San Rafael Resources LLC, Georgia-Pacific Gypsum LLC, Bureau of Land Management

BLM's public layers show 7 notice-level and 7 plan-level locatable-mineral cases in Emery County and none in Carbon. Of the 7 notices, 5 are for 'URANIUM AND OTHER MIN': PINON RIDGE BUCKMASTER (Pinon Ridge Mining LLC, authorized 2024), PEGASUS (ENERGY SANDS & JUPITER) (Pegasus Resources Inc, pending, 2024), SAHARA GREEN RIVER SOUTH (San Rafael Resources LLC, authorized 2024), 'MELINDA EXPLORATION PROJECT' (UTUT106713795, operator C2C NUCLEAR INC, created 24 January 2025, 640 acres mapped in T23S R15E, 'Pending'), and an unnamed notice (UTUT106721750, created 7 March 2025, T24S R10E, no operator shown, 'Pending'). The others are Georgia-Pacific Gypsum's 2025 gypsum exploration notice (authorized 13 June 2025) and an old rock notice. The 7 plans include the Kimmerle Green River #9 uranium plan (authorized 2015), gypsum quarries including the pending 'Powell Gypsum Quarry' (UTUT106759404, created 18 November 2025, T19S R11E), and gemstone and shale operations. The C2C notice sits in the same township as most of the 341 'SS' lode claims of 2024 (mine-003). No record read links any of these operators to Valar.

In plain termsBLM's paper record of mining work in the two counties is small-scale: notice-level uranium exploration (each notice is limited to 5 acres or less of disturbed ground, see mine-024) mostly west and south-west of Green River, plus gypsum quarrying. There is none at all in Carbon County. Uranium exploration here is active again, but nothing in the record ties it to Valar's reactors.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-run 2026-09-29: headline and detail were incomplete (they named only C2C among uranium notices); all 7 notices and 7 plans now summarized from the live layer.
newrecordconfirmed Utah law: a claim post must carry a notice naming the claim and locators, recorded with the county in 30 days
2024-05-01 · mine-026 · Utah State Legislature, Carbon County Recorder

Utah Code 40-1-2 requires the locator to erect a monument at the place of discovery and post on it a notice of location giving the claim's name, the names of the locators, the date of location, and its size and description tied to a natural object or permanent monument. Utah Code 40-1-3 requires the claim's boundaries to be distinctly marked on the ground so they can be readily traced. Utah Code 40-1-4 requires a substantial copy of the notice to be recorded with the county recorder of the county where the claim lies within 30 days of posting.

In plain termsReal mining-claim markers in Utah come with paperwork on the post: the claim's name, who staked it and when. A copy must be on file at the Carbon County Recorder within 30 days. The notice posted at one such marker in Carbon County names Valar Atomics Inc and its lode claim RW 453 (fld-002, csite-019).
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read 2026-09-29 on le.utah.gov: 40-1-2 (effective 1 May 2024), 40-1-3 and 40-1-4 match; all three quotes exact. Updated 2026-09-29 by Claude for the RW 453 notice (fld-002).
newrecordconfirmed Federal law: a new claim must be filed with BLM within 90 days of staking, or it is treated as abandoned
1976-10-21 · mine-025 · U.S. Congress, Bureau of Land Management

43 U.S.C. 1744 (FLPMA sec. 314) requires a claim's owner, for any claim located after 21 October 1976, to file a copy of the recorded location notice with BLM within ninety days of location, and to file each year, before 31 December, in both the county office where the location notice is recorded and BLM's designated office. Failing to file is deemed conclusively to be abandonment of the claim.

In plain termsOnce a claim is staked, the claimant has 90 days to register it with BLM, or the claim is treated as abandoned. So markers staked recently may not show on BLM's map yet (mine-002), and BLM can take longer still to map a claim after it is filed (mine-045).
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read 2026-09-29: (a)-(c) and the 21 Oct 1976 source credit match; quote exact. Plain field no longer says a claim must 'appear' on the map within 90 days (filing and mapping differ).
newrecordconfirmed Surface Resources Act: an unpatented mining claim may be used only for mining, never for a reactor or data center
1955-07-23 · mine-022 · U.S. Congress

30 U.S.C. 612(a) (Surface Resources Act of 23 July 1955) says a mining claim located after that date may not be used, before a patent is issued, for any purpose other than prospecting, mining or processing and uses reasonably incident to them. Subsection (b) keeps the United States' right to manage the surface and let others use it, so long as that does not materially interfere with mining.

In plain termsA mining claim is a right to dig for minerals, not a right to use the land for anything else. Building a reactor, a data center or a factory on an unpatented claim would be outside what the law allows. So mining claims are not a lawful shortcut to a reactor site.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read 2026-09-29: 30 U.S.C. 612(a)-(b) and the 23 July 1955 source credit match; quote exact.
newrecordconfirmed History: San Rafael Swell uranium was first reported in 1914 at Temple Mountain and boomed after World War II
1914 · mine-036 · U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission

A 1957 USGS report for the Atomic Energy Commission (H. S. Johnson Jr., Bulletin 1046-D) says uranium ore in the San Rafael district of Emery County was first reported in 1914 at Temple Mountain, on the east flank of the Swell; the deposits were mined for radium, and possibly vanadium, during World War I and intermittently to 1942; geologists studied Temple Mountain for the Manhattan Engineer District during World War II; production rose quickly after the war; and from 1952 to 1956 output came mainly from the Temple Mountain deposits and Vernon Pick's Delta mine, with the Lucky Strike and 10 to 15 smaller deposits.

In plain termsEmery County has mined uranium, off and on, for more than a century, including for the government's Cold War programs. That long history, from World War I radium through the 1950s Atomic Energy Commission era, is why old workings dot the Swell, and why new uranium interest there is not unusual on its own.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read 2026-09-29 (USGS Bulletin 1046-D, GPO 1957): history section pp. 39-40 matches; quote exact. Date set to the event (first report, 1914) rather than the report year.
newrecordconfirmed The 1872 Mining Law opens federal land, not state or private land, to mineral claims
1872-05-10 · mine-021 · U.S. Congress

30 U.S.C. 22, from the Mining Law of 10 May 1872, declares valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States free and open to exploration and purchase by citizens, under federal law and local mining customs, 'except as otherwise provided'. The statute reaches only land of the United States; the Wellington parcel (Sec. 16) is state trust land (mine-010, mine-034), so a federal mining claim cannot be staked on it.

In plain termsA U.S. citizen can stake a mining claim on open federal land and look for minerals there without buying it first. But the law covers only federal land. The Carbon County parcel the state approved leasing to Valar is state school land, so a federal mining claim cannot be staked on it.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read 2026-09-29 on uscode.house.gov: text and 10 May 1872 source credit match; quote exact. Plain field corrected from 'anyone' to citizens, as the statute says. Correction 2026-09-29 (wording review): lease wording now 'approved leasing'.
newrecordconfirmed Federal and Utah law: no lode claim may be located until a vein or lode is discovered within it
undated · dir-004 · State of Utah, Carbon County Recorder, Valar Atomics

Federal mining law, 30 U.S.C. 23, limits a lode claim to 1,500 feet along the vein and 300 feet each side of it, and says 'no location of a mining claim shall be made until the discovery of the vein or lode within the limits of the claim located'. Utah Code 40-1-1 says the same for Utah. 40-1-2 requires a monument at the place of discovery with the notice on it (claim name, locators, date, feet claimed along the vein each way, width, the general course of the vein, and a tie to a natural object or permanent monument). 40-1-3 requires the boundaries to be distinctly marked on the ground. 40-1-4 requires a substantial copy of the notice to be recorded with the county recorder within 30 days after posting: for RW 453, located September 12, 2026, by about October 12, 2026 (fld-002). 40-1-11 makes it a class B misdemeanor to tear down or deface a posted notice or remove a claim's stakes or monuments. The RW 453 notice therefore amounts to a claim that a vein or lode was discovered in Section 28; no record read says what mineral.

In plain termsIn Utah you may not stake a lode claim until you have found a mineral vein inside it; the notice post is supposed to stand at the discovery. So Valar's claim implies it found a vein in Section 28. What vein, of what mineral, is not in any public record yet. The county copy of the notice is due at the Carbon County Recorder by about October 12.
verified 2026-09-29: Read by Claude from the Legislature's current chapter PDF (generated 2025-05-07). 30 U.S.C. 23 read 2026-09-29 (LII): discovery-before-location sentence quoted exactly; size 1,500 ft x 300 ft each side.
newrecordconfirmed BLM's public mining-claim map shows claim names, serial numbers and status, but not who staked them or when
undated · mine-001 · Bureau of Land Management, MLRS

BLM publishes its Mineral & Land Records System (MLRS) mining claims as two public ArcGIS layers on gis.blm.gov: 'Mining Claims - Not Closed' and 'Mining Claims - Closed' (read 2026-09-29, no key needed; gis.blm.gov has no robots.txt). Their fields are case name, serial number (e.g. UT106782094), legacy serial, claim type (lode, placer, mill site), disposition (Filed, Active, Under Review, Draft, Closed), acres, a Public Land Survey legal description, and record Created/Modified timestamps. They carry no claimant (owner) name, no location date and no county field. The closed layer holds only claims closed or modified within the last year. BLM's own layer description says claims are usually mapped only to the quarter section, and that the staked boundaries are in the Notice/Certificate of Location in the official case file. By contrast, BLM's public layers for mining notices, plans of operations, rights-of-way and leases do carry a 'Business Account Name' (the customer), which is how Valar's rights-of-way applications were found (mine-006).

In plain termsThe federal claim map tells you that a claim exists, its name and number, its type and roughly where it is (to about a 160-acre square). It does not tell you who owns it. To learn that, you look up the serial number in BLM's records (see mine-031) or read the notice nailed to the claim post. The 'Created' date appears to be when the record entered BLM's system (claims carried over from BLM's old system show the 2021 changeover date instead). Because a new claim must be filed with BLM within 90 days of staking (mine-025), it is a close stand-in for when a new claim was staked.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read 2026-09-29: layer metadata re-fetched from gis.blm.gov; field list and the Closed layer's description match, quote exact (15 words).
newrecordconfirmed 43 CFR 3715: living on or fencing a mining claim needs BLM review first, and non-mining uses are prohibited
undated · mine-023 · Bureau of Land Management

BLM's use-and-occupancy rules (43 CFR subpart 3715) limit use of mining claims to what is 'reasonably incident' to prospecting and mining. Occupancy (living on site, structures, watchmen) beyond 14 days in 90 requires ongoing, observable mining work, BLM consultation and BLM's determination before it begins. Prohibited acts include uses not reasonably incident to mining, fences or gates that shut out the public without BLM approval, and blocking public passage by force or intimidation.

In plain termsEven a genuine miner cannot fence off a claim, build on it or keep people out without BLM's say-so, and cannot use it for non-mining purposes. If anyone uses claim markers to block a public road or keep people away for a non-mining project, these are the rules that apply.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read 2026-09-29 from the 2024 annual CFR on govinfo (eCFR answered with a bot check earlier, so later amendments are unchecked): purpose, 14-days-in-90 rule, concurrence requirement and prohibited acts match; quote exact.
newrecordconfirmed 43 CFR 3809: small exploration needs only a notice; bigger work needs a plan with 30 days of public comment
undated · mine-024 · Bureau of Land Management

Under BLM's surface-management rules (43 CFR subpart 3809), exploration disturbing 5 acres or less needs a complete notice filed 15 days before starting (3809.21(a)); casual use with negligible disturbance needs neither. Work over 5 acres, bulk sampling of 1,000 tons or more, or work in special areas needs a plan of operations, and before acting on a plan BLM publishes its availability and takes at least 30 days of public comment (3809.411(c)). The notice rule we read has no public-comment step. Emery County has 7 notices and 7 plans on BLM's public layers and Carbon County none; none is Valar's (mine-030).

In plain termsSmall-scale digging on a claim can start after a notice to BLM that the public never gets to comment on. Larger mining needs an approved plan, and those are published for comment. No mining notice or plan exists in Carbon County at all.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read 2026-09-29 from the 2024 annual CFR on govinfo: 3809.21(a) 15-day notice for 5 acres or less; 3809.11 plan triggers; 3809.411(c) 30-day comment; no comment step in the notice sections. Layer counts re-run: Emery 7 notices, 7 plans; Carbon 0 and 0.
newrecordconfirmed BLM right-of-way rules: public meetings are held if there is enough public interest; notice comes with review
undated · mine-028 · Bureau of Land Management

Under 43 CFR 2804.25 (2024 edition), BLM tells the applicant in writing when it receives a right-of-way application and the cost-recovery fees; it completes NEPA review, consults tribes and other governments, and then decides. The rule says BLM will hold public meetings if there is enough public interest to warrant them, announced in the Federal Register and by other means such as local newspapers or the internet; for solar and wind projects it must hold a local meeting when there is no other early engagement. Valar's three applications are pending (mine-006) and no Federal Register notice for them was found (mine-009).

In plain termsThe rule does not by itself require public notice when a company files for public land. Public involvement comes mainly through BLM's environmental review and any public meetings BLM decides to hold, announced in the Federal Register, which is one reason early letters and calls from residents matter.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read 2026-09-29 from the 2024 annual CFR on govinfo: written notice to applicant, NEPA, consultation, meetings 'if sufficient public interest exists', Federal Register notice, and the solar/wind local-meeting rule match; quote exact. Later amendments unchecked (eCFR bot check).
newrecordconfirmed How to see who holds a claim: BLM's MLRS reports and case pages by serial number (by hand; our tools cannot read them)
undated · mine-031 · Bureau of Land Management, MLRS

BLM's MLRS page says both old and new serial numbers are searchable and points to its public reports at reports.blm.gov/reports/MLRS. That index lists 'Mining Claims - Customer Info Report', 'Mining Claims - Serial Number Index', 'Mining Claims - Claim Name/Number Index', 'Mining Claims - Geographic Report' and a 'Public Mining Claims Serial Register Page', and notes the public versions carry Privacy Act redactions (unredacted access needs a Login.gov account). The reports themselves (under reports.blm.gov/report/) are disallowed to all robots by BLM's robots.txt, and the MLRS public room (mlrs.blm.gov/s/) is disallowed too and renders only by script, so we did not read them. By hand, a resident can search mlrs.blm.gov by a serial number such as UT106782094, or run the Serial Register Page or Customer Info report at reports.blm.gov with it. Other routes: the Carbon County Recorder, where location notices must be recorded (mine-026), and the notice on the claim post itself.

In plain termsWho owns a claim is public, but BLM keeps it in its reports and case pages, not on the map, and bars automated readers from those pages. A person can look it up in a browser in a few minutes with the claim's serial number.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-read 2026-09-29: BLM's MLRS page says both serial numbers are searchable and links reports.blm.gov/reports/mlrs; the reports index lists the mining-claim reports (incl. 'Public Mining Claims Serial Register Page (SRP) - Multi - List') and the Privacy Act/Login.gov note; quote exact.

Map: Emery and Carbon counties

38.5°N39.0°N39.5°N40.0°N111.5°W111.0°W110.5°W110.0°WPriceHelperWellingtonEast CarbonHuntingtonCastle DaleFerronEmeryGreen RiverOrangevilleClevelandElmoSec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-001)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-002)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-003)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-004)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-005)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-006)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-007)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-008)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-009)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-010)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-011)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-012)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-015)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySection 28, T14S R11E SLM (RW 453 lode claim area, per its notice) (section, fact csite-019)Section 28, T14S R11E SLM (RW 453 lode claim area, per its notice)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-019)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-029)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact csite-032)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySection 28, T14S R11E SLM (RW 453 lode claim area, per its notice) (section, fact dir-001)Section 28, T14S R11E SLM (RW 453 lode claim area, per its notice)Sec. 28, T14S, R11E, SLM (where the RW 453 notice places the claim), Carbon County (section, fact dir-002)Sec. 28, T14S, R11E, SLM (where the RW 453 notice places the claim), Carbon CountyUtah San Rafael Energy Lab (800 N Coal Haul Rd, Orangeville) (site, fact dir-006)Utah San Rafael Energy Lab (800 N Coal Haul Rd, Orangeville)Section 28, T14S R11E SLM (RW 453 lode claim area, per its notice) (section, fact fld-001)Section 28, T14S R11E SLM (RW 453 lode claim area, per its notice)Section 28, T14S R11E SLM (RW 453 lode claim area, per its notice) (section, fact fld-002)Section 28, T14S R11E SLM (RW 453 lode claim area, per its notice)Utah San Rafael Energy Lab, Orangeville (approximate, fact loc-001)Utah San Rafael Energy Lab, OrangevilleEmery County Administration Building, Castle Dale (approximate, fact loc-007)Emery County Administration Building, Castle DaleOrangeville City Hall, 25 North Main (approximate, fact loc-013)Orangeville City Hall, 25 North MainOrangeville, Utah (city, fact loc-019)Orangeville, UtahGreen River, Utah (city, fact loc-020)Green River, UtahBLACK RIFLE placer claim UT106782094, Sec. 12 SWNE, T15S R11E, Carbon County (quarter-quarter section, fact mine-002)BLACK RIFLE placer claim UT106782094, Sec. 12 SWNE, T15S R11E, Carbon CountyAMBERIA 1-9 lode claims, T14S R8E-R9E, Carbon County (quarter section, fact mine-002)AMBERIA 1-9 lode claims, T14S R8E-R9E, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact mine-002)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountyBLM case UTUT106784007 'Green River Gigasite' application area, T20S-T21S, R14E-R16E, Emery County (area, fact mine-006)BLM case UTUT106784007 'Green River Gigasite' application area, T20S-T21S, R14E-R16E, Emery CountyBLM case UTUT106784007 'Green River Gigasite' application area, T20S-T21S, R14E-R16E, Emery County (area, fact mine-007)BLM case UTUT106784007 'Green River Gigasite' application area, T20S-T21S, R14E-R16E, Emery CountyBLM case UTUT106784007 'Green River Gigasite' application area, T20S-T21S, R14E-R16E, Emery County (area, fact mine-008)BLM case UTUT106784007 'Green River Gigasite' application area, T20S-T21S, R14E-R16E, Emery CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact mine-010)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact mine-011)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact mine-012)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact mine-013)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact mine-015)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact mine-017)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountyMELINDA EXPLORATION PROJECT uranium notice UTUT106713795, T23S R15E, Emery County (section, fact mine-029)MELINDA EXPLORATION PROJECT uranium notice UTUT106713795, T23S R15E, Emery CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact mine-034)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact mine-040)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountyEmery County parcel 04-0019-0030 (112.7 acres), north-west of Orangeville (parcel, fact mine-046)Emery County parcel 04-0019-0030 (112.7 acres), north-west of OrangevilleSec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact mine-048)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountySec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact mine-049)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountyUtah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, Utah (approximate, fact plan-001)Utah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, UtahUtah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, Utah (approximate, fact plan-002)Utah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, UtahUtah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, Utah (approximate, fact plan-003)Utah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, UtahOrangeville, Emery County, Utah (city, fact plan-010)Orangeville, Emery County, UtahOrangeville, Emery County, Utah (city, fact plan-011)Orangeville, Emery County, UtahUtah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, Utah (approximate, fact plan-015)Utah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, UtahSec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact plan-016)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountyUtah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, Utah (approximate, fact plan-017)Utah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, UtahSec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon County (section, fact plan-017)Sec. 16, T14S, R11E, SLB&M (Trust Lands SULA 2095 parcel), about 5 miles north of Wellington, Carbon CountyUtah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, Utah (approximate, fact plan-018)Utah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, UtahUtah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, Utah (approximate, fact plan-022)Utah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, UtahUtah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, Utah (approximate, fact plan-023)Utah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, UtahEmery County parcel 04-0019-0030, beside the Utah San Rafael Energy Research Center (approximate, fact plan-024)Emery County parcel 04-0019-0030, beside the Utah San Rafael Energy Research CenterUtah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, Utah (approximate, fact plan-025)Utah San Rafael Energy Research Center, Orangeville, Emery County, UtahReference point on Coal Haul Road beside the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab (approximate) (approximate (about 2 km), fact safe-021)Reference point on Coal Haul Road beside the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab (approximate)gold = Valar sites from the research · red = mining claims · grey = towns (approximate)

BLM cases naming Valar: 3

From BLM’s public case layers (rights-of-way, leases, mining notices and plans). A new case appears here after BLM publishes it.

casenametypedispositioncountyfiled with BLMlat, lon
UTUT106784007Green River Gigasite Small Modular Reactor/Data CenterOTHER FEDERAL LAND POLICY AND MANAGEMENT ACTPending2026-02-1339.0335, -110.2432
UTUT106801248Project Beehive Small Modular Reactor/Data CenterOTHER FEDERAL LAND POLICY AND MANAGEMENT ACTPending2026-04-30
UTUT106833224Oil and Gas PipelinesPending2026-07-23

Mining claims in T14S R11E (the lease’s township) or named RW: 0

RW 453 was staked September 12, 2026; federal rules allow 90 days to file it with BLM (by December 11). BLM’s layer shows the filing date, not the claimant.

None filed with BLM yet.

Lode claims located in Utah in the last 12 months: 0

casenametypedispositioncountylocatedlat, lon

Lode claims in Emery and Carbon counties: 0

casenametypedispositioncountylocatedlat, lon