The company that owns a uranium mine near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon has resumed trucking ore from the site.
It follows an agreement with Navajo Nation officials last month to again allow the shipments to cross the reservation.
A representative with Energy Fuels confirms two trucks left the Pinyon Plain Mine Wednesday bound for the White Mesa mill in southern Utah.
“Energy Fuels has transported several hundred thousand tons of uranium ore across the Navajo Nation in several thousand trucks over the past 20 years, without any accidents or incidents resulting in the release of ore, and no impacts to the communities along the route,” said Curtis Moore, Energy Fuels’ senior vice president of marketing and corporate development.
Moore says that the trucks arrived at their destination without incident.
The shipments passed through several northern Arizona communities, including Flagstaff and Williams, and crossed a large swath of the Navajo Nation along U.S. Highways 89 and 160.
The tribe’s Environmental Protection Agency inspected the loads in Cameron before they were allowed to cross the reservation.
Navajo EPA officials expect two trucks per day to leave the mine site through the rest of the month when it could increase to four.
Two weeks ago, the Navajo Nation and Energy Fuels agreed to let the shipments to restart, but only during certain times of the day. Last summer, Navajo President Buu Nygren threatened to turn back ore trucks from the mine after the tribe wasn’t given notice of the shipments. The Navajo Nation outlawed uranium hauling across its lands in 2012.
The Pinyon Plain Mine is the only active uranium mine within the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni–Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. President Joe Biden designated it in 2023, but the mine was allowed to continue operating.
The Indigenous-led group Haul No! continues to oppose the hauling of uranium ore across the Navajo Nation and protested at some sites along the haul route Wednesday. Flagstaff officials have also pushed back and released an online statement in response to the renewed shipments:
“The Flagstaff City Council continues to advocate against the mining of uranium and its transport in and through our region, including passing multiple resolutions and supporting federal legislation that would restrict uranium mining and transport. While the Flagstaff City Council opposes the transport of uranium ore through our community, the City Council does not have jurisdiction over federal or state highways.”
Other local officials have also resisted uranium ore transportation. Last year, the Coconino County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution in opposition to shipments near the national monument, Grand Canyon National Park and local watersheds and airsheds.
“Uranium mining within the boundaries of the National Monument has no meaningful benefit to the County’s quest for energy independence and given it is incompatible with cultural values, poses a substantial environmental risk, threatens tribal lands and the homeland of the Havasupai people, and threatens irrevocable harm to the Grand Canyon’s aquifers, springs and streams,” read the resolution.
