Administration looking to ban mining near Grand Canyon

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) is scheduled to release a Draft Environmental Impact Statement Friday that would ban new mining claims on one million acres near the Grand Canyon. The Northern Arizona Proposed Withdrawal Draft EIS is scheduled to be published in Friday's Federal Register, which begins the official 45-day comment period on the proposed withdrawal. The document was prepared by the Bureau of Land Management, which is acting as lead agency in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, other state and local agencies and in consultation with seven American Indian tribes. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued a federal order in July 2009 calling a two-year "Time-Out' from all new mining claims in the Arizona Strip near the Grand Canyon. The lands blocked from any new exploration and mining activity include 633,547 acres managed by the BLM and 360,002 acres of U.S. Forest Service lands. The acreage is believed to contain substantial uranium deposits...more