Uranium mining, like all mining is harmful and destructive. That said most uranium comes from relatively first world nations and is regulated to the teeth ( because of the potential for weapons- grade material to be made). Advanced in ventilation, and the switch to mining ore robotically has rendered extraction relatively safe. Importantly, uranium ore is not smelted ( I'll come back to this later). Old uranium mines, like a lot of old mines, are environmental disaster areas that need to be cleaned up.

By contrast, precious metals, especially cobalt, come from third world countries (mostly africa) that don't have functioning governments. Mines are run by thugs among populations so desperately poor that families send their kids to work in mines. This is just the form of modern slavery . The materials to make your phone or device came from these mines. These are the same materials whose production needs to be increased to increase production of wind, solar, electric cars, etc.

Precious metals, copper, lead/zinc and many other metals, in existing mining districts are smelted. (Hydrometallurgy is an improvement and is being practiced extensively in some mining areas). Smelting is responsible for most of the world's most polluted places, and it's responsible (at least it used to be) the largest share of greenhouse emissions. These places are sometimes in regions among some of the world's poorest populations.