{"id":21388,"date":"2022-02-24T11:38:31","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T16:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=21388"},"modified":"2022-02-24T11:38:32","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T16:38:32","slug":"cronkite-news-court-sides-with-company-in-dispute-over-grand-canyon-uranium-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/02\/24\/cronkite-news-court-sides-with-company-in-dispute-over-grand-canyon-uranium-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: Court sides with company in dispute over Grand Canyon uranium mine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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9th Circuit Court of Appeals: Grand Canyon Trust v. Heather Provencio – No. 20-16401 – August 30, 2021<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
Uranium mine near Grand Canyon permitted by court, despite mining ban<\/div>\r\n
Thursday, February 24, 2022<\/div>\r\n
By Camila Pedrosa<\/div>\r\n
Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n
cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nWASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal court ruled Tuesday that a uranium mine near the Grand Canyon can operate, even though it sits on 1 million acres that the federal government has declared off-limits to new mining.

<\/P>\r\nA three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims<\/a> by tribal and environmental groups that the U.S. Forest Service erred when it reviewed the mine owner\u2019s rights to operate the Pinyon Plain Mine<\/a>, by improperly calculating its potential profitability.

<\/P>\r\nThe permit for the mine, formerly known as the Canyon Mine, was first issued in 1986, meaning it was grandfathered in when the mining moratorium near the canyon was imposed in 2012. But operations have been largely stalled for decades by a depressed uranium market.

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Energy Fuels Inc.’s Canyon Mine is located less than 10 miles from the gates of Grand Canyon National Park. Photo by Chris Cadeau \/ Cronkite News <\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cWe are of course pleased that the 9th Circuit ruled in favor of the Forest Service, so we can advance this clean energy resource under the watchful eye of our state and federal regulators,\u201d said Curtis Moore, vice president of marketing and corporate development at Energy Fuels Resources, which owns the mine<\/a>.

<\/P>\r\nAn attorney for the Grand Canyon Trust<\/a>, one of the groups suing to block mine, said plaintiffs were \u201cdisappointed in the outcome and are evaluating our options.\u201d But other opponents were more vocal.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cToday’s ruling \u2026 only deepens our resolve to stop this mine and its deadly pollution threat to Grand Canyon’s precious springs and aquifers,” said Taylor McKinnon, a senior campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity.

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The Grand Canyon is too precious to mine. It’s time to ban new uranium mines around the Grand Canyon, forever. Please take 2 minutes to ask your senators to support Senate bill 387, The Grand Canyon Protection Act. \ud83d\udcf7: Ed Moss<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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<\/P>\r\nThis is the second time the circuit court has considered Grand Canyon Trust v. Provencio, and at least the third ruling it has issued on this particular mine, going all the way back to the 1980s when the project was first proposed.

<\/P>\r\nThe Forest Service first approved a plan of operations for what was then the Canyon Mine in 1986, sparking a legal challenge by the Havasupai Tribe. But courts upheld the approval for the mine, and its owner at the time, Energy Fuels Nuclear Inc., began to build surface structures and sink what was to be a 1,400-foot mine shaft.

<\/P>\r\nBy 1992, however, falling uranium prices drove the company to suspend operations with just 50 feet of mine shaft drilled.

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