The federal government on Monday extended for six months a moratorium on new uranium mining claims in a million-acre buffer zone around the Grand Canyon as it awaits the conclusions of a study of potential environmental harm to the region. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the extended prohibition, and added that Interior's preferred alternative in a new Environmental Impact Study is to ban all new uranium mining leases for the next 20 years. A final decision on the plan is due on December 20.
The Conservation Alliance funded the Grand Canyon Trust's efforts to win a 20-year ban on new mining leases.