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Mining law should reflect today's priorities

This Web only Speakout has not been edited.

Ken Neubecker

Published March 1, 2008 at 6 a.m.

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Following the Civil War, America, weary from the killing fields of the East, turned its full attention to the West. Settlers poured over the plains and into the inter-mountain west, building farms, industries and cities from New Mexico to Montana. To expedite this development Congress passed a number of laws encouraging settlers and well-financed eastern industrialists with great incentives. The Mining Act of 1872, signed by the great commander of the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant, was one of these laws.

These laws also helped turn the west into what Bernard DeVoto termed “the Plundered Provence.” In 1947 DeVoto wrote “Economically the West has always been a province of the East and it has always been plundered.” While the Mining Act of 1872 has been amended, amazingly it remains largely as it was originally written. This hopelessly antiquated and outdated eighteenth century law is still the guiding document for western mining now into the twenty first century. The Mining Act of 1872 is no longer valid, even as amended and change is long, long overdue.

The mining companies and their proponents love the Mining Act of 1872.

You would, too, if it gave you what it gives them. First, it makes mining the number one use of Federal public lands. Mining takes precedence and, as DeVoto pointed out sixty one years ago, “The miner’s right to exploit transcends all other rights whatsoever.” Even then the West was changing, but not the old laws.

Second, hardrock mines pay no royalty of any kind. The profits can be huge, but the share enjoyed by the American people, the owners of these minerals, is nothing.

Third, under the stipulations of the antiquated Mining Act large, mining companies, often foreign owned buy thousands of acres of public land for as little as $2.50 and no more than $5 per acres. These prices may have been a reasonable incentive in 1872, but now they constitute an outrageous giveaway from the public legacy.

Thousands of mines, large and small pock mark the west. That mining legacy helped build America and make it the world power it became. It also left a legacy we are still s uffering from of destroyed landscapes, dead streams and ghost towns. The west has been plundered repeatedly and without meaningful reform will continue to be.

Mining is still a legitimate use of public lands, but it no longer deserves the priority it has enjoyed for 136 years. Hunting, fishing, hiking and recreation bring in far more money than hardrock mining and have been the bedrock of many local economies for a long time. These uses need to be given full standing and protection on public lands.

Mining companies need to pay a fair royalty for the public minerals they profit from. Fees and royalties should be used in part to help repair the severe damages from mining’s destructive past, and prevent further damages in the future.

Public lands should be removed from sale and patenting permanently. No more cheap land for the huge multi national corporations. Public lands must remain public.

The resource professionals in Federal agencies like the BLM and the National Forest Service need to have full discretion in the planning and permitting of any mining activity. This is especially important in areas where high wildlife, fishery, recreation and other values exist.

The West is no longer the colony DeVoto described and it’s high time the plundering stoped. The West and America have changed and so have our values, attitudes, needs and uses of the public lands. The antiquated and ruinous Mining Act of 1872 needs to change as well.

Ken Neubecker is a member of both the Colorado Wildlife Federation and Trout Unlimited. He resides in Carbondale.

Comments

  • March 1, 2008

    9:57 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Classof80 writes:

    Please remember that as you wear your gold ring and buy gold jewelery. Without mining you lose alot of things in the world that many deem necessary to survive.. Computers, electronics and such.

  • March 6, 2008

    10:56 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Upacreek writes:

    You're right... one good way to recoup some of the environmental losses caused by past mining that will eventually be borne by taxpayers is to demand the mining industry pay its fair share for those precious commodities they pull from the ground. I don't think anyone is asking us to support an end to mining--that would be insane. But I think it's perfectly reasonable to require industry using land that belongs to every American to pay for the right to do so. Just like other industries on operating on public land, a reasonable royalty ought to be paid so taxpayers don't bear the brunt of the mess.

    Also, what gives? In today's world, particulary in our world here in the West, I would venture to say that public land is actually more valuable left just like it is--the resources we have above the ground are renewable and can last generations. And we won't be piling up mounds of toxic garbage at the heads of streams and polluting water for downstream users. You think a gold wedding band is important? How about taking a clean drink from the faucet. Priorities, people... think big picture here.

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