The federal loan program created for small businesses waylaid by the coronavirus has endured heavy criticism for steering money to some large corporations.
But there’s another flaw: The U.S. Small Business Administration also issued loans to companies with longstanding financial problems unrelated to the virus.
Ur-Energy is one of those companies. For much of the last decade, the mining company has lost money on its Wyoming operations, which supply uranium to America’s nuclear power plants. Ur-Energy’s financial woes are not directly related to the rapid spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to its financial filings.