Navajos spurn uranium mining

[LeighAnn]

Source: Albequerque Tribune

WASHINGTON — Soaring uranium prices are bringing mining companies back to western New Mexico, but the response from the Navajo Nation is "keep away."

Two tribal leaders and four tribe members at a congressional hearing Tuesday recited a legacy of cancer and other diseases they believe were caused by uranium mining during the 1950s, '60s and '70s and by the slow response of federal agencies.

The Navajo Nation has since banned uranium mining on reservation land. Now it wants Congress to put a moratorium on uranium mining on American Indian trust land regulated for the benefit of individuals by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

One company that wants to mine on those allotments and to persuade the Navajo Nation to allow mining as well is Uranium Resources, which recently bought an old mill near Grants. The company says it can employ about 3,000 people at mine sites it owns or would lease in the region.

Read more: http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/oct/24/navajos-spurn-uranium-mining/