Why such big concerns arise from one small mine
As mining operations go, the Energy Fuels Inc. Pinyon Plain mine is a modest concern. The company will extract about 1.57 million pounds of ore over about two and a half years, then shut down and clean up.
But it’s not the volume or the lifespan that landed Pinyon Plain in the crosshairs of environmentalists and tribal leaders. It’s the type of ore – uranium – and the mine’s location 10 miles south of the Grand Canyon’s South Rim.
Energy Fuels notified the U.S. Forest Service and other government agencies this month that it has begun extracting ore at the 17-acre site.
Energy Fuels cited rising prices on the uranium spot market – currently about $90 per pound, the company said, the highest level since 2007 when the uranium spot price reached a high of $135 per pound – as well as growing support from the Biden administration for nuclear power.
Mark Chalmers, the company’s CEO, said Energy Fuels “operates to the highest environmental, safety, and efficiency standards.”
‘A forever problem’
But opponents of that mine and others in the Grand Canyon region see the potential for an environmental disaster, one that would linger long after the ore is exhausted.
“There are a lot of risks in what happens after the mine is closed,” said Amber Reimondo, energy director at Grand Canyon Trust. “We won’t know there’s a problem until it occurs.” If the groundwater becomes contaminated, it will remain that way forever.
The mine is projected to produce about 1.57 million pounds of uranium over its 28-month operating period, she said, while the U.S. uses about 40 to 50 million pounds per year.
“Mining for that very little ore could create a forever problem,” she said.
Over 500 uranium mines were abandoned in the Navajo Nation. The companies left behind polluted water, land and health impacts. Energy Fuels notified the U.S. Forest Service and other government agencies this month that it has begun extracting ore at the 17-acre Pinyon Plain mine.
You can’t talk about uranium mining in northern Arizona without recognizing the deadly legacy of the Cold War era, when mining companies employed workers from the Navajo Nation and other tribes in the region, offered almost no protection from the effects of radiation and then abandoned the operations, leaving behind poisoned water and land. Most of the old sites remain a threat to people who live nearby.
Environmental groups and tribes have fought new mining in the region, citing stacks of research that warns of contaminated ground and tainted water spread in aquifers and down the Colorado River. In 2012, the Obama administration imposed a 20-year ban (upheld by courts) on new mines across 1 million acres surrounding the Grand Canyon and last year, President Joe Biden created Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni National Monument, which permanently locked up most of that land.
But Pinyon Pine and the claim on uranium there predate all of those steps, so neither the 2012 ban nor the monument could prevent Energy Fuels from moving ahead. Other claims were similarly grandfathered in, so expect this story to take more turns.