KINGMAN - New mining jobs in the Arizona Strip area may be put on hold. The Center for Biological Diversity, the Grand Canyon Trust and the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit Nov. 16 challenging a Bureau of Land Management permit for the Arizona 1 Mine.
"I'm very disappointed," said Mohave County Supervisor Gary Watson when he heard of the lawsuit. "It's absolutely absurd to me to lock up one of the richest deposits of uranium in the continental United States."
"As far as we're concerned we have all the necessary permits," said Denison Mines Corp. President and CEO Ron Hochstein, which owns the uranium mine. The company is not named in the lawsuit.
The mine is located 45 miles south of Fredonia and north of the Grand Canyon National Park. It is one of three mines owned by Denison within the boundary of a 1 million-acre area south and north of the Grand Canyon that the federal government is considering withdrawing from all mining for the next 20 years.
The company is still working on air quality permits for the other mining claims it has in the area. At this time, the federal government is not allowing any new mining claims in the area.
In their lawsuit, the conservation groups are claiming that the BLM failed to update a 1988 environmental assessment before issuing a permit to Denison in September.
"The mine has been down for more than a decade," said Roger Clark of the Grand Canyon Trust. It would be prudent to re-evaluate the area, he said. New information has been collected about the area's groundwater and endangered species, and changes to BLM management policies have happened since the mine was closed in 1992, he said.
The conservation groups are also claiming that the BLM did not examine the validity of mine's claim and did not request a new plan of operation for the mine.
The conservation groups state in a news release that the mine's old operation plan expired when it was closed, and the company never established that there was a viable uranium deposit in the area, which is required in order to file a mining claim.
All claims pertaining to the mine have been kept in good standing since the mine was staked in the 1980s, Hochstein said.
The conservation groups have not requested a halt to any mining activity in the area, but they may in the future, Clark said.
Watson said he agrees that mining should not be allowed in the Grand Canyon National Park, but the Arizona 1 Mine is outside of park limits and Denison has met all of the permit qualifications.
According to company's Web site, the mine would employ 32 people and cost $2.3 million to get started. It would mine begin mining in the first quarter of 2010. The company plans to get about 857,000 pounds of uranium ore over the next three years and is expecting to sell it for between $53 and $65 per pound.
Reader Comments
Posted: Saturday, November 21, 2009
Article comment by:
Karen
Seems that the toxicity of uranium not only affects the land, but also temper of those who would debate the issues.
We are far beyond the time of thinking only in terms of economic gain when we talk about mining, or any other activity that alters the land. Mining in such a bio-diverse and fragile ecosystem is less in our long term interest than seeking ways to live without the need for destruction on such a large scale. We have the capacity to look beyond the way we have been doing things, to coming up with responsible ways to bring our pwn needs and that of a healthy earth into synch. I'm all for loking outside the box, protecting what remaining land here is to protect, and sitting down at a table that can hold discussions without the level of anger and mis-information that seems to predominate.
Posted: Friday, November 20, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
I totally agree with Mr. Watson. Here we have this huge resouce right in our midst and can't even use it. Nuclear plants at this time, rely on Russia and China for their uranium to make their rods to operate the plants that create "energy" for the "people" of the "United States". What if one day these other countries say "no more" then what???Hmmm,maybe that's the enviromentalist agenda. Cut off the uranium, no more nuke plants.
Posted: Friday, November 20, 2009
Article comment by:
Copperhead
Just how much of a buffer is enough? 20 miles, 50 miles, 100 miles etc.....Once these people get 20 miles you can bet that they will be demanding 50 miles in the next few years.
There is no proof what so ever that there resides a hydrologic link between the deep mining area and the GC springs. Intuitively, you would think that if there was a link, the environmentalists would want to fix it.....and the best fix would be to mine out the uranium (in effect, cleanse the area).
To all environmentalists, if you believe that the groundwater is in danger, it is in danger because of the uranium deposit, not the mining. In this case you should all be advocates for the mine because they will remove the rock and it will be transported off site to be milled in Utah. What a win-win scenario.
But it isn't really about water is it, that is just a convenient excuse for trying to thrust your elitest agendas on us common folk.
Posted: Friday, November 20, 2009
Article comment by:
meme
These are the same fine people that caused the Mohave Plant to shut down, losing many high paying jobs! They dont care who or what they affect by their actions!
Posted: Friday, November 20, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
To anti-enviromentalis:
I wonder what you will have to say when what little water you have left makes you glow in the dark!
Posted: Friday, November 20, 2009
Article comment by:
RTM
While the "anti-enviromentalist" (sic) may like the idea of drinking radioactive water, there are 25 million others in the Southwest who prefer protecting their water supply. Jobs(short-term, boom/bust) won't do you much good if you are dying of cancer from mine contamination.
Posted: Friday, November 20, 2009
Article comment by:
anti-enviromentalist
Welcome to the world of dealing with the pain in the a-- enviromentalist!!!! They are more trouble than what they are worth. All they do is is tie up the court system and prevent good descent paying jobs. I would love to see the Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Trust and all of their other evil entities crushed!!!More people have been put out of work due to these outfits. Well, keep on fighting don't give up, those "blanks" don't.........
