The Belfield facility site is located about one mile southeast of the town of Belfield in Stark County, North Dakota.

Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) built and operated the facility in the early 1960s to burn uraniferous lignite coal. The plant had a capacity of 100 tons of ore per day and was operated from July 1965 to November 1967. The plant site was located near the mines to decrease the freight haulage costs. Burning the lignite concentrated the uranium values in the ash product that was directly amenable to further processing at the company’s Rifle, Colorado, uranium mill. The raw lignite ore, which contained 35-50 percent moisture by weight, was burned in a natural gas fired, rotary kiln to decompose and drive off the organic constituents and carbon. The kiln was 8 feet in diameter by 125 feet in length, and it operated at 1,300°F to 1,600°F depending on the lignite feed quality. The lignite ore averaged about 0.37 percent U3O8, and the uranium values were concentrated in the ash by the burning process. Uranium recovery in the ash product averaged 93 percent.