The natural beauty and unique type of the Grand Canyon are "in the crosshairs" because of renewed interest in the region uranium reserves. That is the warning from detractor of the mines, ahead of the release of a government report on Friday on the potential crash of fresh mining. Mining has been banned within the Grand Canyon national park since President Roosevelt confirmed it a national monument in 1908. But since 2003, foreign companies have submitted 2,215 claims to view on the edge of the canyon. Ken Salazar, the secretary of the interior, temporarily withdrew 1m acres of ground from exploration in 2009 to allow time for an environmental assessment. Salazar must choose by July whether to ban "mineral entry" for two-thirds of the claims for the next 20 years.
Uranium deposits mineralise in 2,000-feet deep "breccia" pipes, a geological feature ordinary to the world-famous golden brown sedimentary rock in the canyon. When absent alone, the uranium is not harmful. But once dissolved in water, it can leach into spring and aquifers that then supply into the Colorado river, which finally supplies 18 million people in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The water can remain impure for decades after a mine shuts. Taylor McKinnon, campaigns director of public lands at the Centre for Biological Diversity, said the expansion of mining would intimidate the park's delicate ecosystem that multiplicity from desert scrub in the parched canyon to the Californian condors that wheel above the craggy outcrops.
He said: "The Grand Canyon is an international treasure and recognized for its breathtaking expanses. Its isolated seeps, springs and caves harbour a notable diversity of life, including species found nowhere else on earth. Uranium mining puts those kind in the crosshairs." Mining companies have been drawn to the Grand Canyon area since the 1940s, because of huge quantities of high rank uranium that fuelled the nuclear weapons and nuclear power industry in the US. But fast-pace nuclear power programmes in countries such as China and Korea are fuelling a fresh rush for "hard rock", and have send uranium prices soaring from $7.10 a pound in 2001, to $63.88 a pound in 2011.
Uranium deposits mineralise in 2,000-feet deep "breccia" pipes, a geological feature ordinary to the world-famous golden brown sedimentary rock in the canyon. When absent alone, the uranium is not harmful. But once dissolved in water, it can leach into spring and aquifers that then supply into the Colorado river, which finally supplies 18 million people in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The water can remain impure for decades after a mine shuts. Taylor McKinnon, campaigns director of public lands at the Centre for Biological Diversity, said the expansion of mining would intimidate the park's delicate ecosystem that multiplicity from desert scrub in the parched canyon to the Californian condors that wheel above the craggy outcrops.
He said: "The Grand Canyon is an international treasure and recognized for its breathtaking expanses. Its isolated seeps, springs and caves harbour a notable diversity of life, including species found nowhere else on earth. Uranium mining puts those kind in the crosshairs." Mining companies have been drawn to the Grand Canyon area since the 1940s, because of huge quantities of high rank uranium that fuelled the nuclear weapons and nuclear power industry in the US. But fast-pace nuclear power programmes in countries such as China and Korea are fuelling a fresh rush for "hard rock", and have send uranium prices soaring from $7.10 a pound in 2001, to $63.88 a pound in 2011.
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