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CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The U.S. government approved plans Tuesday to expand a Wyoming uranium mine while it considers a proposed new mine by the same developer not far away.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will allow Littleton, Colorado-based Ur-Energy to more than double the surface area of its Lost Creek Mine while tapping deeper deposits underlying the sagebrush country of south-central Wyoming.

The BLM is meanwhile considering the company's plans for a new mine in Shirley Basin about 50 miles east of Lost Creek. The BLM is taking initial comments from the public on that proposal until Monday.

Wyoming produces more uranium than any other state. It all comes out of the ground by way of in-situ mining, a process that uses wells rather than pits or mine shafts to reach the nuclear fuel.

Wyoming has six operational in-situ uranium mines, including associated mining facilities. Lost Creek, which began production in 2013, is among the newest and will encompass as much as 15 square miles once expanded.

The Shirley Basin Mine would be built at a conventional, surface-pit uranium mining site that operated from the 1960s to the 1990s.