GAS HILLS

district rich in uranium deposits, east-southeast of Riverton, central Wyoming, U.S. Uranium was first discovered there by Neil and Maxine McNeice in 1953 on a knoll, now called Discovery Hill, and since then the area has been the object of intense mineral exploration. The uranium-rich soil is scraped up by huge earth movers to form some of the world's largest open pits and pit well mines. The area's uranium mills crush the ores; uranium salts (leached out by sulfuric acid) are refined and pressed into yellow cakes of crude uranium compound for shipping.