Action Alert
Wind River Threatened by Roads for Uranium Mining Exploration
Yukon Government Decision Puts Future of the Wind River Wilderness at Risk
Cash Minerals plans to bulldoze winter roads down the Wind River valley and up two of its tributary creeks to access 4 blocks of uranium mining claims.
Photo by Fritz Mueller
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A mining company plans to bulldoze winter roads into the heart of the Yukon’s Three Rivers wilderness. This plan to save cash on a highly speculative uranium exploration play pre-empts the land use planning process and jeopardizes the future of the Three Rivers. Due to the extreme hazards of radioactive wastes from uranium mining, many jurisdictions have imposed moratoriums on uranium mining. In the Yukon, there has been no public debate on the impacts uranium mining.
On October 24, Vancouver-based Cash Minerals submitted plans to build a 289 km network of winter roads into and along the Wind River to access their multiple uranium claims in the Wind and Bonnet Plume watersheds. The Bonnet Plume is a designated Canadian Heritage River; the Wind River is one of the North’s finest wilderness watersheds supporting existing tourism businesses. For the past several years the mining company has used airstrips for access. Now they want to bulldoze winter roads along the valley bottoms and build a new airstrip beside the Wind River. The proposal will save the company some cash, while the public will be left to deal with the long term environmental fall-out.
Public comments are needed by Monday, December 10, 2007. Click here for more information, including what you can do to respond to this threat.
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