DENVER – Environmentalists used an 1872 mining law assailed by critics as a giveaway to industry to stake claims in six Western states Thursday, hoping to protect land from development and prompt an overhaul in rules for hard-rock mining.
About 50 claims totaling 1,000 acres were staked by the Citizens Mining Co., a coalition of industry watchdog groups. Amy Jiron of Denver and Bonnie Gestring of Missoula, Mont., were among those who drove stakes into the ground and filed paperwork with the Bureau of Land Management, in charge of minerals on federal ground.
The group does not plan to mine gold, uranium or anything else; they intend to hold the claims until the law is changed.
“Staking these claims is essentially using the mining law the way it should be used – to keep big, huge mines from coming in that the 1872 law can’t handle and wasn’t meant to handle,” said Jiron, of the Information Network for Responsible Mining.
National Mining Association spokesman Luke Popovich called the groups’ claims a stunt meant to misrepresent the industry.
“We’re the most heavily environmentally regulated mining industry in the world today,” Popovich said.
Oil and gas are not regulated under the 1872 mining law. The royalty on coal taken from federal lands is 8 percent and 12.5 percent for oil and gas. Hard-rock mining operators don’t pay royalties to the government.
Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., introduced a bill Thursday that would increase fees for claims, impose federal royalties for the first time and set standards for reclaiming the land. It would also give federal officials more discretion in denying claims they believe would jeopardize natural or cultural resources. A similar bill failed during the mid-1990s.
The claims filed Thursday were on federal land near wilderness and state recreation and wildlife areas in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Idaho and Montana.
The Nevada claim borders a conservation area in the Blackrock Desert, about 100 miles north of Reno. The Montana land is near the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness in the northwest part of the state, near the site of two proposed mines.
“We’re staking the claims to protect the land from mining,” said Gestring, of Westerners for Responsible Mining.
The total cost of Thursday’s claims came to $9,250, including local fees. The law’s critics say the low cost – $2.50 to $5 an acre – is one of the biggest problems. Another complaint is the priority given to minerals development.
The law, written during the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, was meant to entice settlers to the West, said Roger Flynn, director and managing attorney with the law firm Western Mining Action Project in Lyons.
“Now it’s used to claim tens of thousands of acres of open-pit mining all over the West,” Flynn said.
The law covers hard-rock minerals, including gold, copper and silver. Some in Congress want to lift the moratorium on land titles granted when stakeholders show a mine will be viable.
Rahall, whose proposal would add an 8 percent royalty on minerals from federal lands, said the government has lost out on an estimated $245 billion in income while paying from $32 billion to $72 billion to clean up abandoned mines.
Popovich said mining companies must comply with federal air and water regulations, and have plans to reclaim the land once the mining is finished. Stricter regulations and even longer delays in securing permits will drive the industry – and its jobs and tax revenue – to other countries, Popovich said.
The mining association supports updating the 1872 law and has worked with conservation groups on proposals, Popovich said. Flynn disagreed, saying industry has fought efforts to reform the law.
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