When the uranium mining boom crashed in the '80s, it really crashed and there wasn't much cleanup.

The health effects of uranium really haven't been studied since the Manhattan Project (the development of the atomic bomb in the early 1940s). But now there is more interest in the health effects of depleted uranium. People are asking questions now.

Essentially, if you get a heavy metal stuck on DNA, you can get a mutation.

When mining is down, we've seen the cycles that forestry has a tendency to be stable. It's rare that both are down. So we try to hedge our bets to be two companies in one by servicing those two diverse markets.

When they were done mining, they used to dump old stumps, car bodies, slop that they didn't want into the entry and cover it up. That only lasts 30 to 50 years.

MSHA and the entire mining community extend our deepest condolences when miners are in danger.