Navajo Mining Interests – Coal but Not Uranium
One of the clubs used to batter atomic power advocates is the old story of indigenous people exploitation during the uranium mining boom of the 1950s and 1960s. The way the story is told, the uranium extracted from Navajo tribal land came at great cost to the health and welfare of the miners and their families and they remain burdened with the residues.
That story is understood to be the reason that the Navajo tribe has banned uranium mining on its land and refuses to even talk to prospectors, despite the fact that the tribe owns a potentially valuable asset and yet has great financial needs.
There is another aspect to the story that is not so well known. The Navajo tribe currently gets more than half of its income from coal mining operations on their sacred land, and the tribe is working with Sithe Energy, BHP Billiton, and Peabody Coal to increase that income by expanding production and allowing the construction of a large new coal fired power station on tribal land, using tribal water resources for both plant cooling and for coal transportation.
Are you still wondering if there is a relationship between opposition to uranium mining and support for coal mining?
