20-Year Ban on New Uranium-Mining Claims in Canyon Holds Up in courtyard

The Havasupai people, and the Grand Canyon division, won in U.S. District Court this week when a moderator denied the uranium industry’s motion to turn over a 20-year central ban on uranium mining on 1 million acres in the economically sensitive landmark and haven of sacred places to many tribes. Still under disputation, though, are formerly existing claims that are held still valid.

The March 20 move upheld a ban signed by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in January 2012, when he prohibited new uranium-mining claims, as well as growth on certain old claims whose rights may have expired, for 20 years on 1 million acres neighboring the canyon. 

The uranium industry was hopeful to cripple the Interior Department’s ability to provisionally protect lands from critical mining. Today’s opinion upholds the center Department’s authority to take such defensive measures.

Uranium mining in the Grand Canyon threatens revered sites of the Havasupai, Hualapai, and Kaibab Paiute, Zuni, Hopi, and Navajo peoples. Not enclosed in the ban confined by the March 20, 2013, court decision is the question of previously accepted mining and new projects on claim sites with accessible rights.