Foreign Mining Corporation Exposed as Beneficiary of Trump's Unprecedented Bears Ears Rollback

Energy Fuels Corporate Documents Reveal Canadian Mining Corporation’s Financial Stake, Previously Lobbied Aggressively for Reductions

HELENA, MT — Foreign mining corporation Energy Fuels Inc., a uranium and rare earth mining company, stands to directly benefit from the Trump administration's unprecedented and historic reduction of Bears Ears National Monument. Corporate documents reveal that as recently as this year, the company cited Bears Ears National Monument, re-designated by President Biden at the urging of Tribal Nations, as a threat to its business operations in Utah. 

Canadian-based Energy Fuels operates a uranium and rare earth processing facility, the White Mesa Mill, in Blanding, Utah. It also maintains active mining claims and ore sources, including the La Sal Complex and Whirlwind Mine, which have never been included inside the Bears Ears boundaries. Yet, the foreign mining corporation has lobbied against Bears Ears since it was initially established by President Obama in 2016. Energy Fuels succeeded during the first Trump administration, even preparing maps that were ultimately adopted by President Trump when he substantially diminished the monument’s boundaries early in his first term. Energy Fuels recently cited the restored Bears Ears monument’s impact in its annual report. 

To this date, Energy Fuels maintains that the boundaries for Bears Ears National Monument are a threat to the White Mesa Mill. As recently as its February 2026 annual report, the foreign corporation wrote that, “... on October 8, 2021, President Biden issued a new proclamation restoring the original borders of Bears Ears National Monument... It is possible that the Mill could become subject to additional requirements, restrictions and costs if the reversion to the original designation is upheld in Court, pending any legal challenges by the State of Utah or otherwise." 

Energy Fuels explicitly understood that Bears Ears monument protection would impose "additional requirements, restrictions and costs" on their operations, giving the corporation a massive financial incentive for the monument's reduction. Energy Fuels has spent nearly a half million dollars lobbying the federal government since the beginning for the second Trump administration and hired the administration-connected lobby firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP.

“Trump’s obsession with gutting Bears Ears National Monument has always been about selling off our outdoor heritage to connected extractive corporations looking to exploit our public lands for a quick buck,” said Jayson O’Neill, Save Our Parks Spokesperson. “Every American should know that the Trump administration is lying to you in a desperate attempt to justify these unprecedented and historic rollbacks of public land protections to benefit a foreign mining corporation.”

The pending court case regarding a president’s authority under the Antiquities Act was directly addressed in Energy Fuels' annual report, and it repeatedly stated concerns about operational costs and restrictions associated with public land protections, including the Grand Canyon uranium mining moratorium. This was not coincidental. The Trump administration's cozy relationship with foreign mining corporations and extractive industries is well-documented, and the connection to Energy Fuels dates back to the administration’s first term. Trump previously appointed Energy Fuels former lobbyist, Andrew Wheeler, to lead the EPA and the corporation recently secured a taxpayer-backed $725 million federal loan from the Trump’s Department of War.

Five Tribal Nations—Hopi, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and Ute Indian Tribe—who advocated for Bears Ears' protection are acutely impacted by the historic and unprecedented move by the Trump administration. The monument had safeguarded over 100,000 archaeological and cultural sites sacred to indigenous communities, along with irreplaceable ecological resources. 

“Trump and Burgum’s unprecedented decision to shrink national monument protections to appease foreign mining interests at the expense of indigenous sovereignty, cultural heritage, and the public’s interest is unacceptable to the vast majority of Americans. Our national monuments belong to the people—not to foreign mining executives,” said Jayson O’Neill.

Save Our Parks is calling on Congress to immediately launch an investigation into the extent of Energy Fuels' and other corporate interests’ influence over Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Deputy Secretary Kate MacGregor, and others involved in Trump administration's historic gutting of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments.

To speak with Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill, email jayson@focalpointstrategygroup.com.

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