Arizona's Grand Canyon is a World Heritage site visit by 4.4 million public per year and, according to the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) contains significant ecological and cultural resources - as well as a few of the USA's best uranium deposits.
In July 2009, the Department of the Interior announced a planned withdrawal of approximately 1 million acres (nearly 405,000 hectares) of federal lands in northern Arizona starting new mining claim place and entry under the 1872 Mining Law. A two-year momentary segregation was instigated to avoid new claims while the planned longer term withdrawal is being taken forward.
This has involved the training of an ecological statement considering various options for the 1 million acres from no withdrawal, in the track of partial withdrawal to full withdraw With the temporary segregation regarding to expire, Salazar has now announced a six-month emergency withdrawal of the land. At the same time, he formally established that the preferred alternative identified under the ecological statement is to be the choice of full withdrawal of the 1 million acres."This alternative, if ultimately selected, would make sure that all public lands adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park are sheltered from new hard rock mining claims, all of which are in the watershed of the Grand Canyon," Salazar said. Talking from the southern rim of the canyon itself on 20 June, he said that the BLM will now absolute the ecological analysis of the preferred alternative and other alternatives. A final ecological impact report will be published by the autumn of 2011.
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