Gold, silver and lithium mining on federal land doesn’t bring in any royalties to the US Treasury – because of an 1872 law
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Thursday, February 15, 2024
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Miners used picks, shovels and pressurized water hoses to pry loose valuable minerals like gold and silver.
Key Points:
- Miners used picks, shovels and pressurized water hoses to pry loose valuable minerals like gold and silver.
- Today, mining is a high-technology industry, but it is still governed by the Mining Law of 1872.
- Even when lands that formerly were available for mining receive new protected status as national parks or monuments, the 1872 mining law protects existing mining claims on those lands.
- Minerals like lithium, uranium and copper are essential for shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and for many other uses in our increasingly technological society.
- As a natural resource and public land scholar, I agree with many others who argue that the 1872 mining law is archaic and overdue for an update.
Royalty-free development
- Today, open federal public lands are managed by either the U.S. Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management.
- In either case, they are considered available for hard rock mining.
- For example, the current royalty rate for oil and gas production on federal land is 16.67% of the market value of these fuels.
- High-profile mining proposals today include copper mines in Arizona and lithium mines in Nevada.
Decades of debate
- Mining on public lands, especially prior to the 1970s, left a multitude of contaminated zones that federal agencies are still working to clean up at taxpayer expense.
- Today, mining operations are subject to modern land management and environmental laws, such as the Clean Water Act.
- But these laws were not written specifically to address mining and do not fully cover issues such as disposal of mine waste.
- In their view, the federal government applies the 1872 mining law in a way that forces companies to spend years securing necessary approvals.
- In September 2023, the Interior Department released a 168-page report making recommendations for improving mining on public lands.
- These measures would retain the structure of the 1872 law while taking steps to streamline permitting for large-scale mining activities.
Balancing critical minerals and conservation
- In my view, focusing myopically on critical minerals and moving forward with a new era of domestic mining should not occur without reforming the 1872 law.
- Halting climate change and powering a new green economy may involve some trade-offs between short-term and long-term environmental protection goals.
- In 1872, our nation’s lands and natural resources may have seemed inexhaustible; today, we know they are finite, and that using them responsibly means balancing development and stewardship.
Sam Kalen served as Special Assistant to the Associate Solicitor for Minerals and Resources at the US Department of the Interior from 1994-1996. Views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.