Rahall Legislation Brings Antiquated Hardrock Mining Law into the 21st Century

Washington D.C. - Nearly 137 years to the day after the U.S. House of Representatives began debate on what became the Mining Law of 1872, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) today reintroduced legislation to reform the antiquated law that has allowed large corporations to extract hardrock minerals from publicly-owned federal lands in the West with no royalties paid to the American people.

"Given our current economic crisis and the empty state of our countrywide Treasury, it is ludicrous to be allowing this outmoded law to continue to exempt these lucrative mining activities from paying a fair return to the American people," Rahall said. "Nobody in their right mind would allow timber, oil, gas, coal or copper to be cut, drilled for, or mined on lands they own without receiving a payment in return for the disposition of their resources. And neither should the United States."

The General Mining Act of 1872 - enacted during a bygone era to promote the exploration and development of the West - permits multi-national conglomerates to stake mining claims on federal lands in the eleven western states and Alaska and to produce valuable hardrock minerals, such as gold, silver, and copper, without paying any royalty to the true owners of this land - the American people. The law contains no mining and reclamation standards, and provides for claimed lands to be sold for as little as $2.50 an acre. In addition, it has left a legacy of poisoned streams, abandoned waste dumps, and maimed landscapes.

The "Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2009" (H.R. 699) would end the financial and environmental abuses permitted by the 1872 mining law - archaic provisions that fly in the face of logic, and are not what taxpayers, sportsmen, conservationists, and western communities want or need - by imposing a royalty on the production of hardrock minerals on federal lands similar to the royalties paid by coal, oil and gas industries.

"Today, our goals for mining policy are no longer what they were in 1872 when President Grant signed this mining legislation into law," Rahall said. "We must aspire to a law that does not merely promote mining, but one that also protects the other values of the hills themselves: clean water, wildlife, recreation, open space, and tourism."

H.R. 699 is nearly identical to the bill passed by the House of Representatives in 2007 with a bipartisan vote of 244-166. It contains the same critical requirements, including:

• An eight percent royalty on production from future hardrock mines on public lands, and a four percent royalty from currently operating mines.
  
  
• A permanent end to the sell-off of those public lands that contain mineral resources.
  
  
• The establishment of a clean-up fund for abandoned hardrock mine sites, prioritizing the riskiest ones.
  
  
• Stronger review requirements, specifically for mines suggested near Countrywide Parks, to help protect nationally significant areas such as Grand Canyon Countrywide Park, where miners had filed in excess of 1,100 claims within 5 miles of the Park as of October 2008.
  
  
• A threshold environmental standard for mining. This standard would not preclude mining, but it would make it possible to protect public lands if a mining suggestion would irrevocably destroy other equally valuable resources.

"I have labored to reform the Mining Law of 1872 for nearly 3 decades - not just to fight the giveaway of public lands and valuable minerals, and to combat the threats to human health and safety from abandoned mine lands - but because I am a supporter of mining," Rahall said. "I believe we can no longer expect a viable hardrock mining industry to exist on public domain lands in the future if we do not make corrections to the law today."

The legislation is co-sponsored by Reps. George Miller (D-CA), Henry Waxman (D-CA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Howard Berman (D-CA), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Jim Costa (D-CA), Donna Christensen (D-VI), Pete Stark (D-CA), Dale Kildee (D-MI), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), Ron Kind (D-WI), Lois Capps (D-CA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Mike Honda (D-CA), John Salazar (D-CO), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Niki Tsongas (D-MA), and Gerry Connolly (D-VA).