President Barack Obama designated the Bears Ears National Monument (BENM) in December of 2016 in San Juan Country in southeastern Utah by Presidential Proclamation. The original size was about two million square miles. The area inside the monument was largely undeveloped and included a variety of historic, cultural and natural resources.
Energy Fuels Resources (USA) is a subsidiary of Energy Fuels Resources (CAN). Most of EFR’s mining takes place in the U.S. Southwest and its headquarters is located in Denver. However, it is based in Canada because the Canadian regulatory environment is considered friendly to mining companies. Sixty percent of mining companies world-wide are based in Canada. EFR has the biggest portfolio of in-ground uranium resources of any company in the U.S. and is the largest producer of uranium in the U.S. EFR provides mining and milling services to other companies.
The original BENM also included or abutted three hundred and fifty uranium mining claims filed by EFR. EFR owns the only uranium mill in the U.S. which is located a few miles from the boundary of the monument. Even being near the monument carries additional regulation for such things as mines and mills.
In 2017, representatives of EFR met with a senior Department of Interior (DoI) official to lobby for reduction of the BENM. A month later, President Donald Trump ordered a surprise review of BENM which involved the DoI official who met with EFR. When the review was finished, Trump ordered that the BENM be reduced by eighty-five percent. The reduction of BENM removed more than one hundred EFR uranium claims from the BENM.
It has been announced that the House Natural Resources Committee chaired by Arizona Representative Raul M. Grijalva is going to hold a hearing in March to review the DoI review of BENM. The Committee is investigating whether or not the 2017 review of BENM “had a predetermined outcome of shrinking Bears Ears to benefit the uranium sector generally and Energy Fuels Resources specifically.”
Grijalva said that if it could be proven that anyone involved with carrying out the review of BENM had met with EFR before the review started, then “all my suspicions as to the motivation behind the shrinkage would be validated... I think it would make our need to get at the bottom of it … it would make it even more significant.”
Ryan Zinke was a Secretary of the Interior under President Trump but was forced to resign under the burden of a variety of charges of corruption. Zinke has been asked to attend the Committee hearings by Grijalva but he declined the invitation. Considering his record of corrupt activities while Secretary of the Interior, it would be likely that Zinke used his power as Interior Secretary to help facilitate the reduction of BENM to benefit EFR.
It would be a major environmental crime against the citizens of this country to subject the unique resources of the original BENM to the degradation and pollution attendant on the mining of uranium. There are other sources of uranium in the U.S. and there is no shortage of uranium that threatens national security.