The U.S. Supreme Court says it won’t review an Obama-era action that put land around the Grand Canyon off-limits to new mining claims, ending the legal battle. The mining industry asked the Supreme Court to review the ban in March, saying it was based on an unconstitutional provision of federal law. Monday, the high court declined the request, leaving the ban in place. The Obama administration put over 1,500 square miles outside the boundaries of the national park off-limits to new hard rock mining claims until 2032 to slow a flurry of mining claims over concern that the Colorado River, a major water source serving 30 million people, could become contaminated and to allow for scientific studies.The ban didn’t affect the roughly 3,000 mining claims that existed before it went into effect. Much of the land in the withdrawal area is north of the Grand Canyon and has some of the richest deposits of uranium ore in the U.S. No one is mining uranium in the withdrawal area now but one company is waiting for uranium prices to rise to restart a mine about six miles from the canyon’s South Rim in the national forest.
Thanks AP.
