GC Uranium - header
Ed Moss

GC Uranium - graphic and overview

GC Uranium - graphic and overview
Blake McCord

Uranium in the Grand Canyon

Uranium deposits sit deep within sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone layers across the Southwest. In the Grand Canyon region, uranium ore is found in geologic features called breccia pipes.

Uranium mining near Grand Canyon National Park began in the 1950s at Orphan Mine, just two miles from Grand Canyon Village. At least eight uranium mines have operated near the park, including the active Canyon Mine (now renamed Pinyon Plain Mine) that threatens springs inside the Grand Canyon.

GC Uranium - withdrawal history

The price for uranium spiked in the mid-2000s, and companies rushed to the Grand Canyon region for a chance to mine its small quantities of high-grade ore. By the end of the decade, thousands of mining claims peppered public lands surrounding Grand Canyon National Park.

GC Uranium - mining claims

2008 mining claims

Map of mining claims in 2008

2022 mining claims

Map of mining claims in 2022

GC Uranium - 600 claims

Across Arizona, there is widespread support for protecting the Grand Canyon from uranium mining. 

Native communities, local governments, hunters, anglers, conservation groups, and many others successfully campaigned for a temporary mining ban around the Grand Canyon in 2012, blocking new efforts to mine uranium on 1 million acres of public lands surrounding the Grand Canyon. As of May 2022, there were still nearly 600 mining claims on national forest and other public lands around the Grand Canyon, despite repeated legislative attempts in Congress to permanently ban new mining around the park

Building on decades of advocacy, tribes successfully petitioned President Biden in 2023 to protect their ancestral lands and waters around the Grand Canyon as a national monument. Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument now protects a critical portion of the Colorado River's watershed from new uranium mining and contamination.

BNIKGCNM - CTA

Thank President Biden for honoring tribes and designating Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni
Image
Blake McCord

GC Uranium - Canyon Mine

A flooding uranium mine near the Grand Canyon

Canyon Mine is a poster child for what can go wrong at a uranium mine in the Grand Canyon region.

Read the cautionary tale

GC Uranium - Havasupai

Havasupai Tribe leads effort to secure permanent protections

The Grand Canyon is a spiritual and cultural homeland to at least 11 Native American tribes, including the Havasupai, whose name means “people of the blue-green water." The Havasupai live deep within the canyon and rely on a spring-fed creek that runs through their village to drink, cook, and irrigate fields of corn and alfalfa, as well as other ceremonial and cultural uses. Worried that Canyon Mine could contaminate the water that flows underground and feeds the seeps and springs in their village, they have opposed uranium mining around the Grand Canyon since the 1980s. 

The Havasupai Tribe, alongside the Hopi Tribe, Hualapai Tribe, Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, Las Vegas Tribe of Paiutes, Moapa Band of Paiute Indians, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, Shivwits Band of Paiutes, Navajo Nation, San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Zuni Tribe, and the Colorado River Indian Tribes, asked President Biden to protect their ancestral lands and waters as a national monument. Biden listened, and in August 2023, he designated Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.

The permanent mining ban tribes have long advocated for is finally a reality. Learn more about Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni ›

GC Uranium - Monument

GC Uranium - Monument
NPS, Michael Quinn

Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni

The new Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument prevents new mining claims from being staked. Mines with valid existing rights, including Canyon Mine (renamed Pinyon Plain Mine), may move ahead. Most of the nearly 600 mining claims in the monument footprint, however, are unlikely to move forward.

Learn More

Havasupai Advocacy

Amy Martin
Blake McCord
Amy Martin
Jake Hoyungowa
Ed Moss
Blake McCord
Ed Moss

GC Uranium - how much is in canyon?

GC Uranium - how much is in canyon?
Blake McCord

How much uranium is in the Grand Canyon?

No matter how you slice it, the Grand Canyon region simply isn't sitting on the mother lode of U.S. uranium.

Find out

GC Uranium - lawsuits

GC Uranium - lawsuits
https://www.grandcanyontrust.org/uranium-lawsuits

In the courts

When necessary, we go to court to stop unsafe uranium mining around the Grand Canyon.

Learn about our past cases

GC Uranium - Uneconomic

GC Uranium - Uneconomic

Uranium mining is uneconomic

Despite what industry claims, uranium mining is not a significant economic driver in the region. It’s the canyons, forests, and mountains — not uranium mines — that draw millions of visitors and their pocketbooks to the region each year.

Take a look. The math is simple ›

GC uranium - scientific uncertainty

GC uranium - scientific uncertainty
Blake McCord

There is scientific uncertainty

Groundwater flow in the canyon is a bit of a mystery. Where does it go? Where does it emerge? How long does it take to get there? 

Scientists need to better understand what's happening underground to determine the risks uranium mining poses to our aquifers, springs, and the Grand Canyon.

Why no uranium mine is "safe" for the Grand Canyon region ›

Learn More (section title)

Learn more

Uranium Blog

02/16/24

A new report looks at the risks uranium mining in the Grand Canyon region poses to Havasupai people.

Read More
01/9/24

Canyon Mine, aka Pinyon Plain Mine, is extracting uranium near the Grand Canyon for the first time in its nearly 40-year history.

Read More
12/6/23

Where does the U.S. get uranium? Hint: Not the Grand Canyon region.

Read More
Copyright © 2024 Grand Canyon Trust