Court keeps ban on new mining claims around Grand Canyon
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A U.S. appeals court has kept in place an Obama-era ban on new mining claims around the Grand Canyon, but a review under the Trump administration is putting it in jeopardy.
The decision Tuesday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes as a U.S. House committee heard testimony on access to minerals on public lands and dependence on foreign imports. The U.S. Forest Service under President Donald Trump has proposed reviewing the 20-year ban on new mining north and south of the Grand Canyon.
Former President Barack Obama’s Interior secretary made more than 1 million acres outside Grand Canyon National Park off limits to new mining claims in 2012. It didn’t affect the roughly 3,000 mining claims that existed before it went into effect, which federal officials say could result in less than a dozen mines.
The area is rich in high-grade uranium ore, and the mining industry, Republicans in Congress and some counties in Arizona and Utah said cutting off access eliminates hundreds of jobs in a remote area and puts the nation’s security at risk. Uranium was discovered there in the late 1940s and is used in nuclear power plants.