Uranium Mines
A federal judge found that El Paso Natural Gas is responsible for 65% of past and future response costs for the cleanup of 19 uranium mines near Cameron, Ariz., and the federal government is responsible for 35% of it.
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Dirty Coal
Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment sued the Department of the Interior for approving a lease to mine coal near Bryce Canyon National Park.
Read moreBotswana Unveils Country’s Largest Blue Diamond Find
A big blue diamond weighing more than 20 carats has been unveiled in Botswana, where the gem was discovered.
Read moreBankrupted Gold Firm Takes On Venezuelan Oil Giant at 3rd Circuit
Representing a client bankrupted by Venezuela, a Gibson Dunn lawyer urged the Third Circuit on Monday to sign off an order attaching Venezuela’s shares in its state-owned oil company.
Read moreSaving El Jefe: A Jaguar Versus an Open Pit Copper Mine
Environmental groups say the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated numerous federal laws and regulations when it approved a Clean Water Act permit for a copper mine in southern Arizona’s Santa Rita Mountains, threatening to upend one of the few wild jaguars living in the U.S. and the surrounding wildlife.
Read moreBrazil Issues 5 Arrest Warrants in Deadly Mine Dam Collapse
Brazilian authorities issued arrest warrants Tuesday for five people in connection with a dam collapse that killed at least 65 people and left nearly 300 missing as it plastered part of a small city with reddish-brown mud and iron ore mining waste.
Read moreConservation Groups File Suit to Stop Montana Mining Expansion
Environmental advocacy groups filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the Interior Department, claiming that officials approved the expansion of a Montana coal mine without properly assessing the possible economic environmental clean-up costs of it.
Read moreMinnesota Issues Final Permits for Disputed Mine
Minnesota pollution regulators granted the final state permits Thursday for the operation of a contentious $1 billion copper-nickel mine and processing plant in the Superior National Forest.
Read moreDeath Toll in Czech Mine Explosion Increases to 13
The death toll in a methane explosion at a black coal mine in northeastern Czech Republic has increased to 13, a mining company said Friday.
Read moreGermany Closes Last of Black Coal Mines That Shaped Country
Germany is closing its last black coal mines, ending an industry that laid the foundations for the country’s industrial revolution and its post-war economic recovery.
Read moreWisconsin Tribe Loses Fight to Block Mine
A federal judge dismissed the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin’s lawsuit challenging a proposed sulfide mine along a river that forms the border between Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, finding the Environmental Protection Agency had a right to cede authority over wetlands permits to state agencies.
Read moreGreek Court Acquits 21 Over Raid on Gold Mining Facilities
A Greek court on Friday acquitted 21 people accused of raiding prospective gold mining facilities that some see as a welcome foreign investment but many local residents strongly oppose on environmental grounds.
Read moreInmates Contest Plan for Prison Above Kentucky Mine
A $444 million plan to build a new federal prison in a sensitive region of Appalachia ravaged by coal-mining operations drew a lawsuit Monday from 21 inmates.
Read moreAhead of Climate Talks, Poles Are Divided Over Coal Mining
Electronics salesman Leszek Jaworowski says he can’t discuss Poland’s coal mining with his father. They end up at loggerheads, just like many families in the southern mining region of Silesia.
Read moreNational Forests
The Idaho Conservation League claims in a federal complaint that the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of the Kilgore Exploration Project, a five-year mining project in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, would hurt “sensitive species” including grizzly bear, whitebark pine, spotted frog and cutthroat trout.
Read moreJustices Weigh State Authority to Ban Uranium Mining
Arguing the measure steps on the federal government’s authority, an attorney for a group of companies that want to mine the largest uranium deposit in the United States urged the Supreme Court on Monday to toss out a Virginia law banning uranium mining.
Read moreSix States, Seven Tribes Sue Polluters for $20 Million
Six states, seven tribes and the United States want two zinc smelters and their top officers ordered to bear the costs of cleaning up dozens of old mining and smelting sites and the rivers they polluted.
Read moreDebate Over Uranium Mine in Virginia Has Date With Supreme Court
Forty years ago, the largest uranium deposit in North America was discovered under the sleepy Appalachian foothills of Southern Virginia. On November 5, the long-running dispute over its potential development will make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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