Board OKs letter supporting uranium mining

The county supervisors approved Tuesday a letter behind uranium mining in Northern Arizona including lands around the Grand Canyon. The board voted to straight staff to submit a letter to National Association of Counties to hold uranium mining on federal Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service Park in Northern Arizona including the Arizona Strip area.

In 2009, U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar withdrew regarding one million acres of land near the Grand Canyon beginning new mining operations for two years. Salazar recently extended the moratorium for six months on the public park in Northern Arizona.

One of three sections of the ground under moratorium in Mohave County is called the north segregation area, which includes land south of Colorado City and Fredonia. There is currently individual active seven-acre mine located south of Pipe Springs National Monument. One woman thought at Tuesday’s board meeting that uranium with the intention of is mine would not drain into the Grand Canyon and that the uranium would naturally drain into washes anyhow because of erosion. Another woman said Arizona Mine Inspector Joe Hart of Kingman told her the mining process would create the environment cleaner.