Grand Canyon uranium mining set to go ahead despite ban from Obama

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Grand Canyon uranium mining set to go ahead despite ban from Obama

Leslie Macmillan
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 30 April 2013 12.39 BST

Uranium mining on the doorstep of the Grand Canyon national park is set to go ahead in 2015 despite a ban imposed last year by Barack Obama.

Energy Fuels Resources has been given federal approval to reopen its old Canyon Mine, located six miles south of the canyon's popular South Rim entrance, that attracts nearly 5 million visitors a year.

The Canadian company says that the Obama administration's ban on new hard-rock mining over 1m acres doesn't apply because its rights date from when it closed over 20 years ago.

However, its approval is based on an environmental study the US Forest Service conducted more than 25 years ago, in 1986.

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Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/30/grand-canyon-uranium-mining

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Sigh....wny not? Let's melt down the Statue of Liberty while we are at it.

[Nihil]

4. Makes more sense than the decision in the OP ...

> Let's melt down the Statue of Liberty while we are at it.

The statue is merely a myth, a nostalgic view of an utopia that never existed, whereas the
Grand Canyon is real and a wonder to be retained for the future without deliberately destroying
parts of it (and hence the whole of it) in the pursuit of profit.

[bunnies]

2. Yeah. sure. Screw that national park bullshit.

Theres money to be made!

[kristopher]

3. "There are over 3,000 mines in the Grand Canyon area that hold such claims."

"Observers say the outcome of the lawsuit is important, because it could serve as a bellwether for how future attempts to re-open old uranium mining claims in the area will go. ... "A lot of people out there want their piece of the park," said Dave Uberuaga, superintendent of Grand Canyon national park, citing "incredible pressure" from mining and other industries to develop land in the area."