House Close to Dismantling 1872 Statute on Mining

[Demeter]

Source: NYTimes

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 — The House is expected Thursday to take a major step toward dismantling the last significant law remaining from efforts to settle the American Wild West, an 1872 mining statute that has allowed vast treasures of gold and other minerals to be carted off federal lands without any royalties paid to the government.

For 135 years, the General Mining Law has permitted prospectors to stake private claims to federal lands, although miners now tend to be corporate conglomerates, not frontiersmen with pickaxes. Environmentalists say the law has also left Western states deeply scarred by abandoned toxic mines.

A House bill, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act, would permanently bar the sale of federal lands to miners and would require them for the first time to pay royalties of up to 8 percent of gross income from mining, which would go to a fund to clean up abandoned mines. It would also establish new permitting and environmental rules.

Supporters say such changes are long overdue. “This is the last that I know of those frontier-era legislation to remain on the books,” said Representative Nick J. Rahall II, Democrat of West Virginia, the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, who for more than 20 years has been working to overturn the 1872 law.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/washington/01mining.html?ref=us

[Nevernose]

1. Now it has to get through Harry Reid, a senator from the Silver State

After gaming, his biggest constituency is mining; it's what the 14 counties that aren't Las Vegas depend on. For much of the 80s and 90s, Nevada saw a huge decline in mining revenue due to the low prices of copper and silver. Now, however, greater demand -- especially for copper -- has made more expensive American mining processes financially viable. It'll be interesting to see where Harry stands on this.

(And for the record, I'm actually a Reid supporter -- I think the guy's highly underrated -- though I also tend to be a bit jaded).

Factoid of the evening: Did you know that Nevada produces more silver than the entire rest of the world combined?

[AlinPA]

7. .....and a veto by Bush**. nt

[Leopolds Ghost]

2. My father spent his entire life trying to get this law overturned

Local governments and Indian tribes lost billions of dollars (stolen by oil, gas, mining companies) because of this.

[Judi Lynn]

3. The article says Larry Craig's again' it! He's a heck of a guy, isn't he?

How can this bill be anything but good for the country? From the article:

Mr. Rahall, who is sponsoring the House bill, said that the royalties would provide roughly $310 million for environmental cleanup over 10 years and that new user fees to be paid by mining companies would reduce government spending by $380 million over the same period, while speeding up permitting and other administrative processes.

Really GOOD NEWS!

[harpboy_ak]

4. About time!

And I come from an Alaska mining family. The house I own was built by my grandfather, who wired what was then the world's largest hard rock gold mine in the 1920s and 30s.

Most of the wealth that was extracted from the Juneau Gold Belt left the area; it was paid to the British & San Francisco investors who financed the mines. What was left behind were the toxic mill areas poisoned with mercury and toxic tailings dumps. The same scenario was repeated all over the West and Alaska.

I'm all in favor of royalties for mines, but they need to be shared with the states and counties where the mines are located, not just taken by the Feral Gummint. States, counties, and cities need the royalty revenues to deal with the mining impacts, growth as well as pollution, especially since Federal lands pay no property taxes.

I hope this bill also puts a lot of restrictions on mining companies regarding pollution and cleanup. They should be required to post very large bonds in advance of mining to deal with both.

[annabanana]

5. I hope the proceeds from this go to environmental clean-up.

I know some parts of Appalachia that could use some help. Unfortunately, no amount of money will put the tops back on the mountains...

[BrklynLib at work]

6. K&R - sign the petition

Just sent a letter to my local Rep stating my support for the changing of this law.

Dear Friend,

I thought you might be interested in this Center for Biological
Diversity - Biodiversity Activist e-activism campaign. If you go
to the URL below you can check out what is at stake and send
your own message directly to the relevant decision makers.

http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/make_a_ghost?rk=BpNaaFY1vIF4W

[maxsolomon]

8. i remember Al Gore leading an effort to change this law

in 1993 (?).

western senators shut it down real quick.

[MetaTrope]

9. The Canadian dollar thanks us

Anybody remember Toronto-based Barrick Gold winning some of Nevada's richest gold-bearing land at pennies on the dollar in 1992, a purchase ramrodded through the Department of the Interior by George H.W. Bush? And a year later, that same George H.W. Bush was sitting on Barrick's board of directors?