National Mining Association v. Ryan Zinke

OPINION

BERZON, Circuit Judge:

We consider challenges to the decision of the Secretary of the Interior to withdraw from new uranium mining claims, for up to twenty years, over one million acres of land near Grand Canyon National Park. Determining the appropriate balance between safeguarding an iconic American natural wonder and permitting extraction of a critically important mineral is at the heart of the present dispute.

The fission of uranium atoms into smaller component parts releases a huge amount of energy—enough to sustain a nuclear chain reaction, as scientists discovered in the first…