Uranium Prospectors Stake First Claims on Lands Cut From Bears Ears

A land rush is underway in the red rock country of southeast Utah. On September 11, the first day that roughly 1.2 million acres removed from Bears Ears National Monument opened for new mining claims, prospectors filed 16 of them. Thirteen came from a single Moab family business with deep ties to uranium exploration. Most of the rest came from small-scale local miners who hold down other jobs. The filings are the first hard result of a summer proclamation that cut the monument by about 90 percent and put ground that had been off limits for years back in play.

The development lands as demand for uranium climbs, driven by a nuclear power revival and the enormous electricity needs of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. Washington and state leaders in Utah have championed nuclear energy as a way to keep the grid reliable and the economy growing. The ground now open for claims sits on some of the most uranium-rich terrain in the country.

Day One of the Utah Claim Rush

The single biggest filer was Kimmerle Mining, a family business based in Moab. Its filings covered a pair of modifications to the 21-acre Easy Peasy mine and 11 additional claims nearby. Kyle Kimmerle, a managing member of the company, did not respond to a request for comment. Records reviewed by conservation groups show he also sits on the board of Urano Energy, a Canadian company focused on uranium.

George Schultz, an off-roading guide based in Moab, filed three claims in the Lockhart Basin. He described staking a claim as one step in the mining process and noted that land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) outside monument protections is meant to be available for multiple uses. He would not say which minerals he expects to pursue, though his professional background includes uranium exploration.

Every one of the day-one filings appears to have come from a small operator rather than a major corporation. The speed still drew a sharp response from groups that fought for years to keep the monument intact.

"Hobby miners who want to go locate claims, play miner on the weekend, leave disturbance and pollution in their wake that really damages the monument resources," said Steve Bloch, an attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Why Uranium Is Back at the Center

Uranium is the fuel that powers commercial nuclear reactors, and the case for mining it in the American West has strengthened as utilities look to extend the life of existing plants and build new capacity. The push for more nuclear energy has been amplified by the power demands of AI, which is forcing grid planners to line up firm, around-the-clock generation instead of relying on intermittent sources alone.

The economics have a physical anchor in Utah. The White Mesa Mill, the last conventional uranium processing site in the country, sits just outside the former monument boundary and can handle ore pulled from the region. Utah was historically the third-most productive uranium state, with most of that output coming from the Colorado Plateau. Those two facts shorten the path from a claim to a working mine in a way that is rare almost anywhere else in the country.

The summer proclamation that reopened the land named the minerals it expected to find there: silver, copper, molybdenum, lead, uranium, vanadium, and zinc. It argued those deposits "create jobs, fuel prosperity, and are essential to important sectors of the economy of the United States." The same logic has reshaped fights over critical minerals supply chains across the country, where lawmakers from both parties now treat domestic sourcing as a national priority.

A Monument That Has Changed Hands Three Times

Bears Ears has been a political flashpoint since President Barack Obama designated it in December 2016, protecting 1.35 million acres in San Juan County. The next year, President Donald Trump pared the monument back by about 85 percent. President Joe Biden restored the original boundaries and slightly expanded them, only for Trump to shrink the monument once more this summer.

The newest proclamation went further than a boundary change. It disbanded the tribal commission that had co-managed the monument with the BLM, ending an arrangement that gave several tribes a formal voice in how the land was handled. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, set aside in 1996, has followed a similar up-and-down path.

Fueling the rush is a long-running dispute over the Easy Peasy mine, whose backers argue that the monument designation made their claims worthless. Kimmerle took part in a 2023 challenge to Biden's restoration of the boundaries, asserting that claims "locked up" inside the monument were effectively useless and that the designation cost him as much as $3 million in lost profits. With uranium prices high enough to matter again, that argument finally has an outlet.

What Comes Next for the Claims

Conservation groups expect the initial wave of claims to grow as word spreads and the season continues. Bloch argues that the deposits are unlikely to justify the expense and the damage, pointing out that earlier rounds of prospecting on the same ground never produced a working mine. "There were no production-level mines that were established," he said.

Others see a different math. Nuclear utilities need long-term fuel contracts, and domestic supply remains thin. The White Mesa Mill has run below capacity for years, and every new claim in the region is a potential source of feed for it. State energy officials have made nuclear power a centerpiece of Utah's plans to meet rising power demand from data centers and industry.

The signals to watch are straightforward. More claims will be staked in the weeks ahead, and the market for uranium will decide how many of them turn into drilling programs. Any new mine would still need permits, financing, and a buyer for its output. The boundaries themselves remain contested, and another round of litigation is all but certain.

For now, the ground that was once closed is open, the paperwork is in, and the first stakes are planted in the Lockhart Basin. Whether it becomes a uranium boom or another false start will be settled by the price of fuel and the pace of the nuclear buildout that Washington and Utah are both working to accelerate.