More Precious Than Gold

Before uranium prices crashed 20 years ago and stalled exploration, conservationists feared the environmental impacts of development of uranium mines surrounding the Grand Canyon on water and roadless areas.

Today, Shirley’s order banning exploration and negotiation is expected to ratchet up the pressure on state, federal and private lands between Interstate 40 and the Utah border, where there are potentially dozens of uranium-ore bodies that would make financial sense to mine if market prices remain at their highest levels in 25 years….

Uranium left a deadly legacy on the Navajo Nation, which (Shirley) has called genocide, Hardeen said. The tribe is giving up millions of dollars in royalties to keep history from repeating itself.

FLAGSTAFF – The price of uranium has tripled in the past two years, bringing with it the possibility of another uranium rush in Arizona, the state with the richest deposits of the ore and, along with New Mexico, the worst legacy associated with its mining.

Last year, 700 mining claims were filed and 100 test holes were bored into the wild, remote high desert in northern Arizona.

Scott Florence, director of the Bureau of Land Management’s Arizona Strip district in St. George, Utah, said those numbers are significantly higher than any year since the frenzy of the 1980s.
“Finding the right mine site is a real art. But it seems like everyone and their mother is trying now,” he said.

Secondary supplies of uranium on the world market have virtually dried up, and China, India and Japan are clamoring for uranium for their burgeoning domestic nuclear-power industries. Uranium now fetches $36 a pound on the spot market. Four years ago, it was going for just over $7 a pound.

But not everyone is happy about the search for new mine sites. Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., stirred to action by the memory of how dangerous uranium mining can be, issued an executive…

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