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 From "The Hill" on May 6, 2019...

"Outdated mining law lets industry use and abuse public lands for free" (BY JOHN LESHY, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR)

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"Congress has unsuccessfully tried to reform the Mining Law of 1872 several times over the years, including a near-miss in 1994. It’s high time to try again.

"The Mining Law President Ulysses Grant signed was the work of Bill Stewart, Nevada’s colorful “Silver Senator,” then barely 40 years old but already, thanks to the hard-rock mining industry, the richest man in the Senate. His main objective was to make sure his industry could continue to extract gold, silver, copper and other substances from public land for free.

"To say he succeeded understates the matter. While by some estimates, mining companies have extracted $300 billion worth of minerals over the past century and a half, they still pay nothing to the landowner — the American public. In fact, today America’s public lands are the only lands on Earth the hard-rock mining industry can mine without compensating the landowner. Everywhere else, the industry pays private and governmental landowners (including states and tribes) substantial sums.

"This is very different from U.S. policy toward the coal, oil and gas industry, which for almost a century has leased public lands and paid the U.S. many billions of dollars in royalties. Indeed, every other industry using public lands for economic gain — like livestock grazers, loggers, solar and wind power developers and recreation concessioners — pays something for the privilege.

"That alone is ample justification for reform. But it’s not the law’s only defect...."

 

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