A uranium mining company set to drill near Grand Canyon National Park has decided to put its work on hold due to market conditions and the cost of litigation, according to The Colorado Springs Gazette.
The company, Energy Fuels Resources Inc., stopped operation until at least December 2014 or until a federal case challenging the US Forest Service's decision to allow the Canyon Mine's development has been decided.
The mine will allow Energy Fuels to extract approximately 83,000 tons of ore to make 1.6 million pounds of processed uranium in 2015, according to the newspaper.
The company is currently re-evaluating its timeline.
Stephen Antony, Energy Fuels president and chief executive said that they will continue working with the Forest Service "to defend the project."
The mine is inside a 1 million-acre area that was put off-limits due to new mining claims in 2012.
Issues with the plan started when the Havasupai Tribe and several environmental groups sued the Forest Service over what they thought was an outdated environmental review of the land. The groups also determined that the Forest Service didn't discuss with the tribe about the mine's "impacts on a butte it holds sacred," according to the Inquisitr.
Energy Fuels bought the Canyon Mine last year from Denison Mines Corp.
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