The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that uranium mill owners, Energy Fuels and Resources, Inc., lobbied officials at the Interior to reduce the amount of land included in Bears Ears National Monument in an effort to protect corporate property just outside the original monument boundary.
The Tribune’s Brain Maffly writes,
“The company apparently feared that having a national monument abutting the mill located at southern Utah’s White Mesa — which features a sprawling network of wastewater ponds — would hurt its operations, putting at risk the nation’s domestic ore-processing capacity.”
For more information on lobbing efforts by Energy Fuels and Resources, and concessions the Obama administration gave the company prior to creating Bears Ears National Monument, check out the Salt Lake Tribune’s article “Uranium mill pressed Trump officials for Bears Ears reductions, records show.”