Shirley seeks help on mining ban
Navajo president, governor hold private meeting on uranium mines

Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. met Tuesday in Santa Fe with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to ask his help in keeping the ban on uranium mining and processing intact.

According to Communications Director George Hardeen,Richardson and Shirley held a private meeting in the Governor's Cabinet Meeting Room, where President Shirley told the governor that a Canadian company has opened a uranium mine development office in Santa Fe in hopes of resuming uranium mining at Church Rock on the Navajo Nation.

The New Mexico Business Weekly reported Aug. 9 that Strathmore Minerals Corp. of Canada had announced the opening of its office.

It also was reported that Strathmore officials met with Gov. Richardson's office to discuss its plans, and that the company hoped to gain state approval to reopen its Church Rock and Roca Honda uranium mines in McKinley County. The mines were purchased by Strathmore from Kerr-McGee Nuclear and Rio Algom.

Hydro Resources Inc. (HRI) also plans to mine uranium in Church Rock through in-situ leach technology. "The Navajo Nation as a government and a people has said we're not going to have uranium mining on Navajoland or in Navajo Country," Shirley told Richardson. "We'd like to see that law stick."

The Navajo Nation Council passed the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act, 63-19, on April 19. Banning uranium mining was a major plank in President Shirley's campaign platform three years ago, Hardeen said, and continues to be a significant issue for his administration.

"We've been through too much," Shirley said of the 65-year-old legacy of uranium mining. "We just don't want it."

The president said the governor assured him he would not take any action without first consulting the Navajo Nation.

Thousands of uranium miners and their families have become ill or died through exposure to uranium mining, contaminated water, tailings and dust. Years of efforts to have them receive compassionate compensation for their illnesses led to more delays, denials and disappointment, Hardeen said.

In June, President Shirley delivered a statement to UNESCO the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization seeking international support for the ban on uranium mining and processing.

In an hour-long meeting at UNESCO headquarters in Paris with Ahmed Sayyad, assistant director-general for External Relations and Cooperation, President Shirley discussed the need to protect Navajo sovereignty through respect for the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005.

President Shirley said he believed "the powers that be committed genocide on Navajoland by allowing uranium mining"