When Monument Boundaries Opened Land to Mining Claims in Utah

On July 13, 2026 the President signed proclamations that substantially reduced the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase‑Escalante national monuments in Utah, cutting protected acreage to roughly 121,096 acres for Bears Ears and about 181,541 acres for Grand Staircase. The proclamations specify that, at 9:00 a.m. eastern daylight time 60 days after the proclamations, lands that are excluded from the monuments will be open to location and patent under the mining laws, mineral and geothermal leasing, and other disposals under the public land statutes.

The proclamations list a wide range of critical minerals beneath parts of the excluded lands — minerals such as chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, silver, thorium, titanium, uranium, vanadium and zinc — and these resources have attracted both company interest and prospectors in past episodes of boundary change. After the 2017 reductions mining claims were rapidly located near monument edges, and conservation organizations have mapped and documented those filings in public land records.

Under federal law the Bureau of Land Management maintains mining claim records and will process any new claim filings, although approvals and development still require compliance with separate environmental and land‑use rules and cannot override valid existing rights or legal withdrawals. Because the proclamation creates a defined 60‑day opening window, companies and individuals that intend to pursue claims have time to prepare locations, perform due diligence, and, if they choose, record claims once the window arrives.

Local tribal nations and conservation groups have highlighted that many excluded parcels contain archaeological sites and sensitive habitat, and they have called for careful management plans where land use changes are proposed. If claims are located, the process that follows will be governed by long‑standing mining laws and by the BLM’s administrative procedures.