Mining interests are setting their sights on Utah's two recently slashed national monuments, the first forays into possible resource extraction on land that several Native American tribes consider culturally significant.
That's according to public records and a press release from environmental and tribal groups.
President Donald Trump drastically cut Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by about 90% in July, opening both up to new mining claims starting Sept. 11, according to proclamations signed by Trump.
But one day after Trump's proclamations, Moab-based Kimmerle Mining filed seven claims within the old boundaries of Bears Ears in San Juan County. Craig Rosequist filed two claims within Grand Staircase in Kane County less than a month after that.
Kimmerle Mining and Rosequist did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"It's just very unfortunate that our public lands and Native American ancestral homelands are being put up so quickly on the chopping block," said Autumn Gillard, a Southern Paiute woman and member of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah.
Gillard is the coordinator for the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition, which is made up of the Hopi Tribe, the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, the Navajo Nation, the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Zuni Tribe.
The coalition exists to ensure tribal voices are included in management decisions concerning the monument, which many tribes consider part of their ancestral homelands.
Gillard worries that if the claims one day turn into full-scale mining projects — a process that could take years — they could hurt a treasured landscape that's home to thousands of cultural sites.
"Mining is super invasive to Mother Earth and to nature," Gillard told KNAU. "And when we're looking at the monument regarding cultural resources or ancestral landscapes, we have a holistic conservation viewpoint, meaning that we know that all of the elements of nature interact with each other, meaning plants, air, water, animals, humans. So every component plays its part in that environment, including minerals."
It wasn't a surprise to hear that mining entities are looking into the newly cut monuments, Gillard said, but the speed at which these claims were filed "shock[ed]" her and the coalition. She predicts more claims will follow.
"Individuals that are advocates for public lands and enjoy engaging with them really need to start to consider public lands in their area and the probability that we could start seeing this happening more," she added. "We're seeing issues like in Big Bend, we see the issues of Chaco [Canyon], we see Bears Ears and Grand Staircase, and so it really is something that's starting to gain momentum."
Brian Somers, president of the Utah Mining Association, said he's confident that mining regulations in the U.S. would require any projects built to operate responsibly. Kimmerle Mining and Rosequist are not part of Somers' association, he said.
"There are going to be areas that are inappropriate for mining, and there's other areas that are going to be very appropriate for mining," Somers said. "Regardless, we can develop our minerals in a way that respects the environment and that allows for the public to get the minerals that they need and that they rely upon in an environmentally friendly way, and in a way that's also friendly to workers and to the communities that they operate in."
And, he said, mining the monuments for minerals like uranium could help reduce dependence on foreign adversaries like Russia and China. Several of Kimmerle Mining's claims specify they would extract minerals like uranium, vanadium, copper and "other precious metals."
Uranium is used to power nuclear reactors, while copper can be used for electrical wiring and electronics. Vanadium is used to strengthen steel.
"Our reliance on China for critical minerals has been very problematic, and they've featured very prominently in a lot of our trade and also national security discussions," Somers explained.
But Gillard rejects the argument that safe, responsible mining could occur within the monuments.
"We could really create a really huge environmental impact issue that we're not taking into consideration right now," she said.
Kyle Kimmerle of Kimmerle Mining was part of a lawsuit that challenged former President Joe Biden's 2021 restoration of the national monuments.
In March 2026, Jonathan Thompson of the Land Desk noted that Kimmerle had claimed properties in the Henry Mountains, naming them "Trump I, Trump 2, Trump 3, and Trump 4," according to Thompson's Substack.
It's unclear if the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will approve the claims, since Trump's proclamations only allow them after mid-September.
"Appropriation of lands under the mining laws before the date and time of restoration is unauthorized," the proclamations state. "Any such attempted appropriation, including attempted adverse possession under 30 U.S.C. 38, shall vest no rights against the United States."
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