Forest Service approves operating plan for Rosemont Mine

The proposed Rosemont Mine cleared its last major administrative hurdle when the U.S. Forest Service approved a proposed operating plan for the project. Hudbay Minerals Inc. announced Thursday that the Forest Service has sent it a copy of an approved Mine Plan of Operations. The plan is supposed to lay out how the company plans to operate the $1.9 billion project to remove copper and other minerals from an open pit on the eastern slope of the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson. The Forest Service will post the approved mining plan on its rosemonteis.us website no later than Friday, said Heidi Schewel, a Coronado National Forest spokeswoman. The mine, when completed, is expected to pull 112,000 tons of copper concentrate from the ground every year. It's supposed to operate for close to 20 years before shutting down and create more than 500 full-time jobs...MORE

Trump administration withdraws Obama rule on uranium milling

The Trump administration announced Friday it would withdraw an Obama-era proposal aimed at regulating how waste from uranium milling is disposed. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrew the proposed rule for uranium and thorium mill tailings, or waste byproducts. The Obama administration had submitted the proposed rule the day before President Trump took office in January 2017. Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler called the now-scrapped proposal a “rush to regulate during the waning hours of the previous administration.” Share to Google+ Trump administration withdraws Obama rule on uranium milling © Getty Images The Trump administration announced Friday it would withdraw an Obama-era proposal aimed at regulating how waste from uranium milling is disposed. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrew the proposed rule for uranium and thorium mill tailings, or waste byproducts. The Obama administration had submitted the proposed rule the day before President Trump took office in January 2017. Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler called the now-scrapped proposal a “rush to regulate during the waning hours of the previous administration.” “Today’s action is an important step in rebalancing EPA’s role with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s with respect to protecting public health and the environment alongside supporting modern methods of uranium extraction,” Wheeler said in a statement on Friday. Wheeler said that the Obama-era rule “would have imposed significant burdens on uranium miners and the communities they support.” A key point of the regulation was reducing the spread of radon, a cancer-causing radioactive gas byproduct of uranium...MORE

Zinke announces mining ban for 30K acres in Paradise Valley

There are places to mine gold, but for at least the next 20 years, it won’t be on the border of Yellowstone National Park. That’s the message on Monday from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who signed a 20-year moratorium on mining near the park. Far from the turmoil of Washington, D.C., Zinke gathered with several members of the Yellowstone Gateway Business Coalition, not far from where a proposed gold mine would have been. “Public lands is not a Republican or a Democrat issue. It’s an American issue. And there are some things that are more important than politics,” Zinke said. Those gathered pointed to the importance of nearby Yellowstone National Park and the Yellowstone River downstream from this gathering. Zinke declared this place special. “I graduated with a degree in geology, and I’m a pro-mining guy,” said Zinke. “I love hard rock but there are places to mine and places not to mine. And you have to look at the American conservation ethic of best science, best practices, greatest good longest term.” Monday’s announcement didn’t just happen overnight. In fact, when Zinke first became involved, he was Congressman Zinke of Montana Today, signing as Secretary of Interior Zinke, he is using what he said is the full power of his office. ...MORE

Zinke to make ‘major’ conservation announcement near Yellowstone

The Interior Department is expected to extend a ban on new mining claims in the mountains north of Yellowstone National Park early next week. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will be in Pray on Monday to make an announcement regarding “long-term conservation of the area,” according to an Interior Department release sent Thursday. The release said Zinke will appear with members of the business community and conservationists and that he’ll be signing documents, but it didn’t specify what the announcement would be. Locals and conservationists expect Zinke will announce an extension of a ban on new mining claims on 30,000 acres of public lands in the mountains north of Yellowstone near where two companies have proposed exploratory drilling in recent years. A two-year ban ordered by the Obama administration in 2016 expires in November. The U.S. Forest Service recommended last month that the Interior Department block new claims in the area for 20 years. Zinke has signaled that he would support such a ban. He has opposed mining proposals in the area since he was a Montana congressman. Several supporters of the mineral withdrawal have been invited to the event, which is not open to the general public...MORE

Republican bill to limit gold mines gets U.S. Senate nod

A grassroots effort to stop two proposed gold mines in Paradise Valley is hopeful that a permanent solution is coming, after the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee unanimously passed the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act on Tuesday morning. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester and Rep. Greg Gianforte, has now cleared committees in both houses, and supporters are hopeful that it will become law during Congress’s lame duck session later this year. The bill would permanently ban mining on 30,000 acres of Custer Gallatin National Forest, an area that includes two proposed gold mines. Lucky Minerals is a Canadian company that has proposed a gold mine at Emigrant Gulch that contains leases on public and private lands in the Custer Gallatin National Forest. Crevice Mountain Mining Company has a proposed mine near Jardine, near the north border of Yellowstone National Park. The bill would make both mines less feasible because the companies, which currently claim to have private leases in the national forest, would not be able to expand onto surrounding public land...MORE

USDA Removes Roadblock to Mineral Exploration in Rainy River Watershed

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has removed a major obstacle to mineral leasing in Minnesota, through the cancellation of an application which has blocked mineral exploration in the Rainy River Watershed. Interested companies now may soon be able to lease minerals in the watershed in the Superior National Forest. Over the last 15 months the Forest Service conducted a thorough review on this issue and listened to thousands of citizens. Based on this review the USDA Forest Service cancelled the application for the Rainy River Watershed Withdrawal. “It’s our duty as responsible stewards of our environment to maintain and protect our natural resources. At the same time, we must put our national forests to work for the taxpayers to support local economies and create jobs,” Perdue said. “We can do these two things at once: protect the integrity of the watershed and contribute to economic growth and stronger communities.” In 2016, the Forest Service segregated approximately 234,000 acres from the federal mineral estate and conducted an extensive review of environmental information related to the proposed mineral activities. The review included a mineral resources report, a biological and economic impact assessment, and potential impacts to water resources, wilderness areas, and cultural resources. The agency solicited public feedback at numerous public engagements. The analysis did not reveal new scientific information...Press Release

Sinkholes, Poison Gas, Dynamite: Inside Abandoned Mines

A century-old gold mine is a curious place, and that's a problem for those whose job it is to find bats and blasting caps as worrisome as the public finds them to be wondrous. When the 2015 fire in Owyhee County finally burned out, a team of experts from the Bureau of Land Management followed closely behind the wildland firefighters assessing the safety of public land known as the Owyhee Front. The Soda Fire burned 280,000 acres in southwest Idaho and eastern Oregon. The blaze damaged 28 mi. of roads and 150 mi. of recreation trails, severely diminishing grazing acreage in Owyhee County and requiring the rescue of 283 wild horses. But what concerned this BLM team were the abandoned gold mines that lay beneath the surface of the public land in the Owyhee Front — hazards exposed by the fire. Abandoned mines are any mining sites that were vacated before Jan. 1, 1981, when BLM's surface management regulations took effect. Those abandoned mines, and thousands more spread across Idaho, are an ongoing risk and expense for both Idaho and the federal government. Experts from the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service and the Idaho Department of Lands must balance limited funding, resource extraction, public safety and the unique problems that come from cleaning up messes dating back to the era of the Civil War. Gold mining of ore deposits in sand and gravel began in Silver City in 1863, and lode mining began in 1865 at the Morning Star mine in Silver City. On BLM land alone, the Idaho abandoned mine lands staff have identified and inventoried 1,480 abandoned mine sites in Idaho and 8,224 mine features — which could be anything from a 200-ft.-deep mine shaft to an old building — on those sites. There are about 210 known mines on state land, more on Forest Service land and unknown numbers on privately held land across Idaho. The Idaho Geological Survey database has mapped 9,000 active, abandoned and prospect mine sites in Idaho but estimate that there may be 8,000 more not yet included in the database. So far, abandoned mines staff have repaired 923 abandoned mines across Idaho. Phil Barbarick, the Idaho abandoned mine lands team lead, said 824 of those were physical safety hazards and 99 were environmental hazards. “We think there's probably double that out there,” Barbarick said...MORE

Billboards Call Out Interior Secretary on Grand Canyon Uranium Mining

Arizona sporting groups are targeting Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke in a publicity campaign to head off a possible rollback of an Obama-era ban on new mining claims around the Grand Canyon. On Monday, the Arizona Wildlife Federation and Trout Unlimited unveiled two Phoenix billboards that call on Zinke to save Grand Canyon from uranium mining, citing the industry's hazards for water and wildlife. The Trump administration has signaled that it may revisit the Interior Department's 2012 moratorium on new mining claims, known as a mineral withdrawal, that protects over 1 million acres of public lands for 20 years. (Existing mining claims were not affected.) Ending the moratorium "just doesn’t pass the common-sense test," said Scott Garlid, the conservation director for the AWF. "You look at the benefits of mining for uranium up in that area, and they’re relatively small," he said. "There’s going to be a few additional jobs, but not very many, and certainly not as many as the outdoor and recreation industries ... We’re not making America great again by doing uranium mining around the Grand Canyon."...MORE

Virginia Uranium Mining Dispute Draws U.S. Supreme Court Review

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider overturning a ban on mining at the site of the nation’s largest known uranium deposit, heeding calls from the Trump administration and the companies that own the Virginia land. Virginia Energy Resources Inc. and other companies contend in their appeal that the state ban runs afoul of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act. They say that law puts the subject of nuclear safety entirely in the hands of federal regulators. A federal appeals court rejected that argument last year, upholding the Virginia ban on a 2-1 vote. The site, near the North Carolina border in Pittsylvania County, contains an estimated 119 million pounds of uranium. The deposit was discovered in the early 1980s. Virginia officials urged the Supreme Court not to hear the appeal. They contend that the Atomic Energy Act doesn’t regulate conventional uranium mining on private land, leaving states free to do so. Virginia first banned uranium mining in 1982. The case is Virginia Uranium v. Warren, 16-1275. Bloomberg

Bears Ears is open for business

Forty miles as the crow flies west of Blanding, Utah, just up the road from the former uranium boomtown of Fry Canyon and a dirt airstrip, is a parcel of federal land historically valued for its radioactive metal and other hardrock minerals. The tracks of mule deer and cattle criss-cross a maze of red rock, cacti and parched-looking shrubs. The only signs of human life are the contrails from airlines overhead and the sound of an occasional car buzzing along State Route 95. Here is where I decided to stake my claim, the first step a prospector takes to mine public lands. For a year, this remote and magnificent desert landscape was part of Bears Ears National Monument and off-limits to new mining claims. That changed in December when President Donald Trump reduced the 1.35 million-acre monument by 85 percent. The more stringent protections the Obama-era monument designation afforded officially lifted in early February, leaving sites like this once again open for business. The Bureau of Land Management braced for a potential influx of new claims...MORE

Judicial Arrogance - An Obama judge declares war on mining because of climate change

A federal judge has ruled that the government must consider reducing mining in America’s top coal-producing region, to fight climate change. Moreover, he ordered the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to work with the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and four other environmental industry groups, to write a new management plan for the region. Montana District Judge Brian Morris, a 2013 Obama appointee, has apparently relied on an entirely new body of law, discovering a previously unknown section of the Constitution. Like all federal judges, he swore an oath to perform his duties “impartially… under the Constitution and laws of the U.S.” Nothing in those documents gives Judge Morris authority to order the BLM to work with non-government organizations (the same ones that filed the lawsuit in question) to alter America’s use of energy. I bet Judge Morris is a great dad — not the kind whose kids run wild, but a believer in tough love. In fact, in this era my own parents would both make terrific federal judges. Many times when we questioned the reason for their various decisions and rulings, their response was simply, “because I said so.” I read Judge Morris’s ruling in the coal case, and that is essentially the source of his extraordinary power to change our society. Make no mistake about the change this ruling could mean if upheld by the higher courts. The Powder River Basin supplies 40 percent of America’s coal, and coal provides roughly a third of all electricity in the U.S. In Western States like Colorado, coal still provides over half our electricity. Coal remains America’s most abundant energy resource, and by far its cheapest, so the declining use of coal is driving up utility costs. The government projects monthly residential electric bills will more than double in the next 20 years. Yet the environmental industry plaintiffs that brought this suit against the BLM actually asked the judge to completely ban coal mining in that region. Their end game is easily understood. But what authority would a federal judge have to determine that coal could be mined elsewhere on other federal land, but not in that particular region? By the way, this case is not about environmental groups v. the Trump Administration. The plaintiff groups challenged plans for the region published in 2015 by the Obama Administration...MORE

US miners seek reversal of uranium mining ban near Grand Canyon

The US mining industry asked the US Supreme Court on Friday to overturn an Obama-era rule that prohibits the mining of uranium on public lands adjacent to the Grand Canyon National Park. The National Mining Association (NMA) and the American Exploration and Mining Association (AEMA) filed petitions asking the court to reverse the Obama administration's 2012 ban on new uranium mining claims on more than one-million acres of public land adjacent to the canyon. In 2012, Ken Salazar, then the secretary of the interior, instituted the ban for 20 years on the public lands that the Havasupai tribe relies on for water. The ban was upheld by the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in December. NMA spokesman Luke Popovich said his organization was challenging Salazar's constitutional authority to declare the large land withdrawal, and he said uranium mining does not harm the land. "There is scant evidence that uranium mining outside the park boundaries poses any threat to either the environment or visitor experience," Popovich said. He said Salazar ignored a finding by the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management that showed mining would have little impact...more

Interior looks to make mining a matter of national security

The Interior Department on Friday issued a list of rare metals and minerals deemed critical to the U.S. economy as part of the Trump administration's agenda to support mining as a national security priority. “Any shortage of these resources constitutes a strategic vulnerability for the security and prosperity of the United States,” said Tim Petty, assistant secretary of the Interior for water and science. The draft list of 35 minerals published Friday are deemed "critical" to the U.S. and include such highly prized metals such as aluminum, the platinum group of metals used for catalytic agents, and rare-earth elements that are used in batteries and such high-tech devices as smartphones and missile guidance systems. The work in compiling the critical element list was done by the U.S. Geologic Survey, an agency that "is at the heart of our nation’s mission to reduce our vulnerability to disruptions in the supply of critical minerals,” Petty said. The list will be available for comment by industry and the public until March 19. The National Mining Association, the lead industry group for mining in the U.S., on Friday said the list isn't extensive enough. Hal Quinn, the head of the mining group, urged Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to expand the scope of "criticality" by broadening the list of metals and rare earth elements to include "all minerals." “All minerals are ‘critical’ when we need them and can’t get them,” Quinn said. The Interior Department "should act to address the greatest threat to U.S. mineral security: the broken domestic mining permitting process.” Quinn appeared hopeful that the Interior Department may consider a broader definition of criticality when it finalizes the list later this year, saying the Friday notice from the agency acknowledges "the drawbacks" in the methods used to define what constitutes a critical element or metal...more

BLM cancels move to restrict mining in environmentally sensitive land in California desert

The federal Bureau of Land Management this week canceled plans, developed under the Obama administration, to remove 1.3 million acres of environmentally sensitive California lands from new mining activity. The Trump Administration’s BLM said Tuesday that after a review of mineral exploration levels and mining data in the California desert, as well as the “expected impacts from future activities,” the agency concluded that mining operations, subject to existing environmental regulations, “do not pose a significant threat to the protection of cultural, biological and scientific values.” “This is a full assault on our public lands,” said Phil Hanceford, conservation director of The Wilderness Society, in Denver. An environmental analysis associated with the proposed withdrawal has also been terminated, the BLM announcement said. “This sets a bad precedent for National Conservation Lands in general, where mining could be allowed in all units,” said Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity in Los Angeles...more

Trump administration cancels detailed review of Obama-era mining ban near Minnesota wilderness

Dino Grandoni and Juliet Eilperin

The Trump administration will curtail a detailed review of how cordoning off 230,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service land in Minnesota from mining development will affect a neighboring wilderness area, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. The decision to convert the study launched in the final days of the Obama administration into a less-stringent environmental assessment could have major policy implications. Last January, the Interior Department blocked mineral extraction for two years in the swath of forest near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a glacially carved region west of Lake Superior that is speckled with lakes and popular with canoers. At the same time last year, the federal government announced it would review whether to bar mining in the U.S. Forest Service-managed land for a longer stretch, the next 20 years. Interior officials decided not to renew existing leases for a copper and nickel mining operation there. The action launched bureaucrats into completing hundreds of pages of environmental analysis — ultimately meant to produce a comprehensive document called an environmental impact statement. But according to a draft of a press release obtained by The Washington Post, the Forest Service plans to announce that it will now conduct an abbreviated review of the Obama-era proposal to withdraw the land from possible mining. The switch to a less stringent review, called an environmental assessment, comes a month after Interior chose to renew the expired mining leases held by a Chilean mining giant next to the wilderness area...more

Uranium Miners Pushed Hard for a Comeback. They Got Their Wish.

MONUMENT VALLEY, Utah — Garry Holiday grew up among the abandoned mines that dot the Navajo Nation’s red landscape, remnants of a time when uranium helped cement America’s status as a nuclear superpower and fueled its nuclear energy program. It left a toxic legacy. All but a few of the 500 abandoned mines still await cleanup. Mining tainted the local groundwater. Mr. Holiday’s father succumbed to respiratory disease after years of hacking the ore from the earth. But now, emboldened by the Trump administration’s embrace of corporate interests, the uranium mining industry is renewing a push into the areas adjacent to Mr. Holiday’s Navajo Nation home: the Grand Canyon watershed to the west, where a new uranium mine is preparing to open, and the Bears Ears National Monument to the north. The Trump administration is set to shrink Bears Ears by 85 percent next month, potentially opening more than a million acres to mining, drilling and other industrial activity. But even as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke declared last month that “there is no mine within Bears Ears,” there were more than 300 uranium mining claims inside the monument, according to data from Utah’s Bureau of Land Management office that was reviewed by The New York Times. The vast majority of those claims fall neatly outside the new boundaries of Bears Ears set by the administration. And an examination of local B.L.M. records, including those not yet entered into the agency’s land and mineral use authorizations database, shows that about a third of the claims are linked to Energy Fuels, a Canadian uranium producer. Energy Fuels also owns the Grand Canyon mine, where groundwater has already flooded the main shaft. Energy Fuels, together with other mining groups, lobbied extensively for a reduction of Bears Ears, preparing maps that marked the areas it wanted removed from the monument and distributing them during a visit to the monument by Mr. Zinke in May. Energy Fuels’ lobbying campaign, elements of which were first reported by The Washington Post, is part of a wider effort by the long-ailing uranium industry to make a comeback. The Uranium Producers of America, an industry group, is pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw regulations proposed by the Obama administration to strengthen groundwater protections at uranium mines. Mining groups have also waged a six-year legal battle against a moratorium on new uranium mining on more than a million acres of land adjacent to the Grand Canyon...more

Montana senator wants to eliminate wilderness study areas

Montana Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines has introduced a bill to eliminate wilderness study area designations on nearly 450,000 acres of federal lands in the state, a move he said will improve public access but was met with jeers from some conservation advocates. Called the Protect Public Use of Public Lands Act, the bill moves to release five wilderness study areas managed by the U.S. Forest Service. If released, the lands would stay in federal control but restrictions on uses like logging and grazing and motorized use could be changed. The bill targets study areas that the Forest Service didn’t recommend to become wilderness and all but two that were included in a resolution supporting release that was passed by the Montana Legislature last spring. The 151,000 acre Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area is not included in Daines’ bill. During a conference call with reporters on Thursday, Daines said the designations have been an impediment to Montanans’ ability to use the lands over the last few decades. “I’m fixing that today,” he said...more

Ah, but there is something else afoot here:

The bill does have support from motorized use advocates, some county commissioners near the study areas and mining industry groups. Daines also said that releasing the study areas might help advance a bill seeking to ban new mining claims on 30,000 acres of public land east of the Paradise Valley, called the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act. In the past, Daines has expressed uncertainty about whether that bill — sponsored by Montana’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester — has a serious chance of passage. He said Thursday that the release of the study areas may help forge bipartisan support for that measure. “Pairing these would be one path forward,” he said.

Looks like we may have a little tit for tat going on here...and its about time. Any new legislative withdrawals, wilderness areas, parks, monuments, nca's, etc. should contain provisions to return other areas to multiple-use.

Trump to reconsider Grand Canyon uranium mining ban

The Trump administration is targeting for review a uranium mining ban that former President Barack Obama instituted in the watershed of the Grand Canyon. The Forest Service, which owns some of the more than 1 million acres of land subject to the uranium ban in Arizona, put the withdrawal on a list of policies released Wednesday that it says inhibit the production and use of domestic energy. The Obama administration instituted the ban in 2012 amid fears by American Indian tribes and environmentalists that uranium mining would pollute the Colorado River and the nearby Grand Canyon. Uranium mining is regulated as hard-rock mining, so the federal government does not get any royalties for it, unlike some other minerals such as coal or oil. The ban has been highly controversial since it was put in place, and Republicans, industry groups and some local leaders say it unnecessarily prevents responsible economic activity. “Uranium mining would have brought in nearly $29 billion to our local economy over a 42-year period,” the board of supervisors of Arizona’s Mohave County wrote in June to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, whose Bureau of Land Management owns some of the land. “This ban took away much needed growth and jobs from our area.” Obama was pressured to turn the protected land into a national monument, which would have indefinitely blocked mining and other development, but he did not act on the proposal while in office...more

FBI uncovered Russian bribery plot before Obama administration approved controversial nuclear deal with Moscow

Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews. Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show. They also obtained an eyewitness account — backed by documents — indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill. The racketeering scheme was conducted “with the consent of higher level officials” in Russia who “shared the proceeds” from the kickbacks, one agent declared in an affidavit years later. Rather than bring immediate charges in 2010, however, the Department of Justice (DOJ) continued investigating the matter for nearly four more years, essentially leaving the American public and Congress in the dark about Russian nuclear corruption on U.S. soil during a period when the Obama administration made two major decisions benefiting Putin’s commercial nuclear ambitions...more

Rosemont Mine one step closer to reality with Forest Service approval

The proposed Rosemont Mine in the Santa Rita Mountains has moved closer to approval with the U.S. Forest Service signing off on a key step in the process. The Forest Service released its Record of Decision, lending approval to the project after more than a decade of research and public feedback. But Hudbay Minerals, the Canadian company that hopes to open the mine, still needs approval of a permit related to its impact on the region’s watershed from the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has been critical of the proposed plan. The site, 30 miles southeast of Tucson, spans more than 5,400 acres of private, state and federal land in the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson. Proposed facilities include an open pit mine more than a half-mile deep and roughly a mile wide and associated processing and disposal facilities. Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals Inc. will extract copper, molybdenum and silver from the mine...more