The Maybell uranium mill site is located 5 miles northeast of the town of Maybell in Moffat County, Colorado.

In November 1953, privately funded airborne radiometric surveying located anomalies over outcrops of fluvial sandstone strata of Miocene age near Maybell, Colorado. Only a few weeks earlier, radioactive outcrops had been located in similar strata near Baggs, Wyoming, during U.S. Geological Survey geological reconnaissance/radiometric surveying conducted for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). By March 1954, follow-up private airborne surveys, surface prospecting, and subsequent drilling had defined economic sandstone-type uranium deposits near Maybell. In August 1955, the AEC entered into a contract with the Trace Elements Corporation (TEC) for a uranium mill at Maybell, Colorado. TEC established a pilot-scale, ore-processing plant for test extractions and recovered 238 pounds of uranium concentrate, which the AEC purchased under the initial contract.