Wednesday, November 7, 2007

House waves bye-bye to 1872 mining law

Overhaul of 135-year-old legislation now headed to U.S. Senate

---

By JASON KAUFFMAN
Express Staff Writer

The rules for mining in Idaho and the rest of the West would change substantially if the U.S. Senate and President Bush support a proposed overhaul of the Mining Law of 1872. Photo by Mountain Express

Under legislation approved in the U.S. House last Thursday, federal agencies including the U.S. Forest Service could reject proposed mining activities such as a current proposal by a Canadian mining company to build an open pit gold mine in the southern Sawtooth Mountains.

The company, Atlanta Gold, hopes to build an open pit cyanide heap leach gold mine 60 miles northeast of Boise in the headwaters of the Boise River. The river provides a significant portion of the municipal water used by Idaho's capital city.

The Atlanta Gold proposal has drawn intense criticism from numerous sources, including Idaho conservationists and the mayor of Boise, David Bieter.

The House-approved legislation is a massive overhaul of the 135-year-old Mining Law of 1872, which was signed into law by U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant. The legislation was among a series of laws intended to promote the settlement of the West, which at the time was largely a remote frontier.

The sponsor of the current legislation, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall, D-WV, was instrumental in shepherding the comprehensive reform legislation through the House. The bill was approved by a vote of 244-166.

The two Idaho members of the U.S. House, Mike Simpson and Bill Sali, both Republicans, voted against the reform legislation.

In a news release sent out after the historic vote, Rahall noted that the Mining Law of 1872 helped develop the West and allowed needed minerals to be extracted.

"We have long passed the time when this 19th-century law can be depended upon to serve the country's 21st-century mineral needs," Rahall said. "At stake here are the health, welfare, and environmental integrity of our people and our precious federal lands, the public interest of all Americans, and the future of the hardrock mining industry in this country."

Current law permits multi-national mining companies to stake mining claims on federal lands in the 11 Western states and Alaska and to produce valuable hardrock minerals such as gold, silver, and copper without paying any royalties. Furthermore, the law sets forth no mining and reclamation standards, and provides for claimed lands to be sold for between $2.50 and $5 an acre.

The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 would end this practice by imposing a royalty on the production of hardrock minerals. This would include an 8 percent gross income royalty on new mines and a 4 percent gross income royalty on fully operational mines.

The coal, oil and gas industries have long paid royalties to the government for the extraction of these resources from federal lands.

Under the legislation, a special fund financed by the royalties collected would be used to finance the estimated $30 billion to $70 billion in costs to clean up abandoned hardrock mines, address the human health and safety threats they pose and provide for community impact assistance. The legislation also would put a permanent end to the patenting of public land—the sale of mining claims—at bargain-basement prices.

For Idaho conservationists, giving federal agencies the ability to turn down proposed mining projects because their environmental impacts are deemed too great is one of the most important changes to come out of the legislation.

"That's the biggest thing," said John Robison, public lands director for the Boise-based Idaho Conservation League.

Robison said the legislation isn't about going after the mining industry. He said what it does do is give cities, counties, states and tribal governments the ability to petition the Department of the Interior to withdraw federal lands from mining to protect drinking water, wildlife habitat and other resources they deem critical to their communities and local economies.

"It's about leveling the playing field," he said. "This would finally give Idahoans a voice."

Despite its overwhelming passage in the U.S. House, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act faces a more uphill battle in the U.S. Senate, which is led by Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. Reid, the son of a gold miner, has indicated support for some aspects of the House-approved legislation.

And even if the bill or a modified version of it achieves passage in the Senate, it still faces skepticism from President Bush, who has threatened to veto the legislation.