Colorado-based Energy Fuels Resources can operate a uranium mine near the Grand Canyon on public land that was closed to new mining claims nearly a decade ago, a federal appeals court ruled in a challenge by three environmental groups and the Havasupai Tribe.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals – which had revived the lawsuit in 2018 – affirmed that Energy Fuels’ had a valid existing right to mine in the Kaibab National Forest, even though development of the mine was suspended after uranium prices dropped in 1992.

The Pinyon Plain Mine – formerly known as the Canyon Mine – is about 16 km from the Grand Canyon and includes areas of religious and cultural significance to the Havasupai, which joined a 2013 lawsuit in federal court in Arizona but did not participate in the current appeal.