Miners filed 16 claims on the 1.2 million acres removed from Bears Ears National Monument on Sept. 11, the first day claims could be filed, two months after President Trump cut the monument by about 90%. The filers appear to be small-scale Utah miners interested in uranium.
Moab-based Kimmerle Mining filed 13 claims: two modifications to the 21-acre Easy Peasy mine and 11 nearby claims. Managing member Kyle Kimmerle declined to comment. Moab off-roading guide George Schultz filed three claims in Lockhart Basin. He said staking a claim is only a step in mining and that Bureau of Land Management land outside monument protections is meant for multiple uses; he declined to name the minerals he expects to mine.
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and other environmental groups were alarmed by the filings and expect more. The alliance’s attorney, Steve Bloch, warned that weekend prospecting could leave damaging disturbance and pollution, and said he doubts uranium deposits would justify mining’s costs and environmental harm. Kimmerle’s Easy Peasy mine dug up 30 tons of ore while searching for uranium in 2018, but stopped because prices then did not make mining profitable.
