Outrage over plans to extract uranium ore from the Grand Canyon

A Mayfair mining company has caused uproar with plans to extract uranium from the Grand Canyon – prompting one official to ask how Britons would react “if an American company went to drill at Stonehenge”.

The Grand Canyon is not only one of the world’s most famous natural landmarks, attracting five million visitors a year and offering a home to bald eagles, condors, bighorn sheep and exotic fish. It also happens to contain vast reserves of uranium ore – suddenly in huge demand, thanks to renewed interest in nuclear power as part of the search for “green” fuel.

But while demand for uranium has risen, supply has fallen as mines have closed in Canada and West Africa. As a result, the price has soared – and that has sparked a rush to find new deposits.

The Mayfair company VANE Minerals is at the forefront of this scramble, planning to drill at up to 39 spots on seven sites within the Kaibab National Forest, which borders both the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon, in north-central Arizona. A further thousand claims are thought to be pending from other companies – up from just ten in 2003.

National Park officials, Indian tribal leaders and even some scientists are doing everything they can to stop the exploration, going so far as to call a congressional “field hearing” in Flagstaff, Arizona. “The Grand Canyon is something we depend on for visitors, for tourism, it’s one of the wonders of the world, and here we are as the federal Government allowing the distinct possibility of uranium mining,” Raul Grijalva, a congressman for the state, said.

Environmentalists point out that uranium is both a toxic heavy metal and a source of radiation. As a result it could kill local wildlife and poison the water in the Colorado River Aqueduct, which provides drinking water to Los Angeles and much of southern California, Tribal leaders also complain that they have previously been forced to clean up after bankrupt mining concerns, while radiological assessments at one past exporation site – the Orphan Mine – have shown gamma-radiation at more than 450 times the background level after uranium was brought closer to the surface.

Yet with fears rising over global warming, many argue Timesonline