[NukeNet] Huge Increase in Uranium Mine Claims in Western U.S.

[Mike Ewall]

This is couched in compromised terms about "responsible mining" -- as 
you might expect from Pew.  However, even though there cannot be such 
a thing as "responsibly mined" uranium, this information (and 
especially the map) is pretty striking.  Check out the map here: 
http://www.ewg.org/sites/mining_google/US/

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http://www.ewg.org/node/22427

Report: More Than 800 New Mining Claims Crowd Border of Grand Canyon
National Park

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A report released by the Environmental Working Group
today shows an 80 percent increase in uranium, gold and other mining
claims in 12 western states over the past five years, including an
explosion of uranium claims near the edge of Grand Canyon National Park.

According to the report, "Mining Law Threatens Grand Canyon, Other
National Treasures", mining interests and speculators have staked 815
claims within five miles of Grand Canyon National Park, 805 of them since
January 2003. Across the West, more than 50,000 claims were staked from
last September to this May alone. The proliferation of claims in Colorado
and Utah has been especially staggering, with a more than 200 percent jump
overall since 2003.

High prices for uranium and other metals sparked by growing worldwide
demand has helped fuel the surge in claims, but the source of the threat
is an antiquated federal statute that remains fundamentally unchanged
since it was signed by Ulysses S. Grant in 1872. The law provides special
status to mining on many public lands, almost always giving it priority
over every other form of recreation and conservation.

"The global economy has created a modern day land rush in the American
West, while our outdated mining law leaves federal land managers with the
legal equivalent of a pick and shovel in their efforts to protect our
national parks," said EWG Public Lands Analyst Dusty Horwitt. "In effect,
this means that speculative Chinese demand for nuclear fuel has more
influence over the fate of mining in the American West than the people who
work and live there."

The 1872 mining law allows mining companies, foreign and domestic, to take
valuable resources from public lands without taxpayer compensation, unlike
oil, gas and coal industries that have been paying royalties to the
federal treasury since the 1920s. In addition, estimates indicate
taxpayers will need to pay $32 billion or more to clean up toxic waste
released by the industry.

"Our national parks are threatened by a law written before the light bulb
was invented," said Jane Danowitz, Director of the Pew Campaign for
Responsible Mining. "The surge of new claims within a stone's throw of the
Grand Canyon and other national treasures should serve as a wake-up call
to Congress that it's high time to modernize this antiquated law."

Next week, the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral
Resources, chaired by Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA), will hold a field hearing on
H.R. 2262, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007. The bill
represents a new bipartisan effort, lead by House Natural Resources
Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-WV), to modernize the 1872 mining law.

Today representatives of the Environmental Working Group and the Pew
Campaign for Responsible Mining discussed findings that show that 10 of
the West's national parks, including Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite
and Death Valley, are at new and growing risk as mining claims cluster
around their boundaries. An MP3 audio file of this call will be available
by 4:00 p.m. EDT today at http://www.PewMiningReform.org.


Mike Ewall
Energy Justice Network
215-743-4884
catalyst at actionpa.org
http://www.energyjustice.net